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PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 

MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


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CAMP  FIRES 
IN  THE  YUKON 


BY 

HARRY  A.  AUER 

author  of 
"the  north  country" 


CINCINNATI 
STEWART  &  KIDD  COMPANY 

1916 


Copyright,  1916,  by 

STEWART  &  KIDD  COMPANY 

All  Rights  Reserved 

Copyright  in  England 


VAIL-BALLOU    COMPANY 

BINQHAMTON  AND  NEW  YORK 


In  grateful  remembrance 

of  the  beloved  comrade  of  many  trails, 

MY  FATHER, 

who  in  my  early  youth  took  me  by  the  hand 

and  led  me  along  the  untrodden  ways  of  the  wilderness, 

this  volume  is  dedicated. 


(Vi3€6891 


FOREWORD 

The  intendment  of  this  volume  is  not  to  present 
a  work  on  wilderness  travel  nor  is  it  offered  as  a 
treatise  on  woodcraft,  though  it  necessarily  contains 
somewhat  of  both.  Its  sole  purpose  is  to  accur- 
rately  record  the  writer's  experiences  and  observa- 
tions as  a  hunter  of  big  game  in  The  Yukon  just  as 
they  happened  day  by  day  and  set  down  in  my  diary 
at  the  time  the  events  narrated  transpired. 

When  the  writer  has  assumed  to  go  beyond  the 
range  of  his  own  experiences  and  relate  those  of  his 
hunting  companions,  the  diary  records  those  experi- 
ences just  as  related  to  him  by  his  companions  about 
the  camp  fire  at  the  end  of  the  day's  chase. 

For  the  benefit  of  those  who  may  desire  to  follow 
the  writer's  trail  into  this  remarkable  hunting  field, 
it  seemed  wise  to  incorporate  an  account  of  the  route 
taken  by  this  expedition  together  with  a  brief  de- 
scription of  points  of  interest  along  the  way.  The 
modes  of  travel  with  their  difficulties,  the  items  of 
equipment,  expeditionary  and  personal,  the  charac- 
ter of  the  commissary,  and  the  methods  of  hunting 
are  set  forth  as  indispensable  to  a  true  account  of 
the  summer's  work  and  a  possible  help  to  any  who 
may  travel  the  same  trail. 


vi  FOREWORD 

The  objects  of  the  expedition  were  twofold:  to 
observe  and  study  the  habits  of  the  various  game 
on  their  native  ranges,  and  to  obtain  specimens  of 
the  game  for  the  collections  of  the  individual  mem- 
bers of  my  party. 

Of  no  less  importance  than  obtaining  specimens 
was  the  study  of  the  habits  of  the  Ovis  dalli,  being 
the  pure  white  mountain  sheep,  and  the  less  ob- 
served and  more  rare  animals,  the  woodland  cari- 
bou, rangifer  osborni,  found  in  large  numbers  in  the 
undisturbed  mountain  ranges,  which  we  visited. 
The  sheep  mentioned  in  this  diary  are  all  the  Ovis 
dalli,  as  we  observed  not  a  single  specimen  of  Fan- 
nin's sheep,  nor  of  Stone's  sheep.  The  caribou 
mentioned  are  all  the  rangifer  osborni,  as  we  ob- 
served no  other  specimens  of  the  caribou  family. 

For  the  sake  of  clarity  and  in  order  to  enable  the 
reader  to  follow  the  movements  of  the  expedition 
into  the  interior,  and  more  particularly  as  it  has 
been  the  writer's  effort  and  purpose  to  record  only 
facts  as  they  transpired  without  straying  into  the 
fields  of  fiction,  the  writer  has  deemed  the  purpose 
to  be  best  served  by  a  strict  adherence  to  the  facts 
and  observations  set  down  at  the  time  of  their  oc- 
currence in  his  diary. 

These  are  the  things  I  have  seen, 

And  these  are  the  thoughts  I  feel, 

As  I  lie  in  the  warmth  of  the  firelight's  gleam, 

Till  sleep  steals  away  my  will. 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    The  Yukon  Expedition  and  Its  Equipment      i 

II    The  Route  with   Some  Observations  on 

THE  Golden  Past  and  the  Present  .      .     lo 

III  The    Westward   Trek    by   Wagon    Trail 

FROM  WhITEHORSE  TO  LaKE  KlUANE   .        .       22 

IV  The    Trek    by    Pack   Train    from    Lake 

Kluane  to  the  St.  Elias  Range  .     .      .41 

V     Sheep  and  Caribou   Hunting  in  the  St. 

Elias  Range 55 

VI     Hunting  Along  the  Mountains  of  Count 

Creek  and  Klutlan  Glacier  ....     77 

VII    Deep  into  the  St.  Elias  Range. —  Sheep 

AND  Caribou loi 

VIII     Deep    into   the    St.    Elias    Range    (Con- 
tinued).—  A  Paradise  of  Rams    .      .      .   120 

IX    The  Moose  Ranges 142 

X    The  Retreat  Across  the  Range  .     .     .     .160 

XI    The  Goat  Ranges  of  the  Slims  Moun- 
tains     .173 

Appendix 190 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Along    Lake    Kluane    Approaching     Slims 

Mountains Frontispiece 

rAGE 

Fisher  the  Cook,  and  Albert,  Indian  Guide     ...  25 

Taking  Horses  Across  Slims  River 25 

"  Muck-a-Muck "  at  Deserted  Cabin 28 

Home  Camp  on  St.  Clair  River 28 

Outriders  of  St.   Elias  Range 34 

Across  Bear  Creek  Summit 34 

Valley  of  the  Donjeck  River 45 

The  Shore  of  Lake  Kluane 45 

Winter  upon  Tundra  Barrens 45 

Along  the  Wolverine  River  Bottoms 54 

Fording  the  Donjeck  River 54 

Climbing  the  Heights  of  the  Ancient  Ram  ....  68 

Caribou  Country  High  Up  Near  the  Glacier  ...  68 

We  Climbed  Pinnacles  Above  Count  Creek  Glacier     .  77 

Towering  Seas  of  Snow  Crests  Tossed  to  Heaven   .  80 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Osborni  Caribou 98 

Caribou  Herd  Came  Along  Below  Us 98 

Peak  on  Left  Where  We  Located  Ram  After  Storm  .    no 
We  Dug  Ourselves  Out  of  Our  Crazy  Shelter  .      .      .110 

A  Rare  and  Perfect  Trophy 117 

Willow  Patch  Camp.     Altitude  5,800  Feet    .      .      .117 

The  Heart  of  the  St.  Elias  Range .124 

Plan  of  Moose  Drive I33 

Crossing  St.  Elias  Range,  Mt.  Natazhat  in  Distance  .    160 
Auer's  Pack  Train  Crossing  the  St.  Elias  Range  .      .160 

Pinnacles  of  Slims  Mountains 173 

Live  Silver  Foxes 173 

A  White  Speck  Against  the  Blue  on  the  Sky  Line  .      .181 

A  Becoming  Side  View 181 

A  Farewell  Look 181 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 
CHAPTER  I 

"  Let  us  probe  the  silent  places,  let  us  seek  what  luck  betide 

us; 
Let  us  journey  to  a  lonely  land  I  know. 
There's  a  whisper  on  the  night-wind,  there's  a  star  agleam 

to  guide  us. 
And  the  wild  is  calling,  calling  —  let  us  go." 

The  northwest  angle  of  the  Western  Hemisphere 
stretches  into  the  Pacific  Ocean  toward  Asia,  form- 
ing the  United  States  Territory  of  Alaska,  well 
termed  a  "  nation's  treasure  house."  Separated 
from  Alaska  on  the  east  by  only  the  imaginary 
boundary  of  the  one  hundred  and  forty-first  merid- 
ian of  longitude,  lies  an  inland  domain  politically  a 
province  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  with  a  sea 
coast  of  only  200  miles  on  the  ice-bound  Arctic  Sea ; 
and  this  domain  is  also  a  "  nation's  treasure  house," 
a  land  of  romance  and  somewhat  of  mystery  —  the 
Yukon. 

Within  this  Yukon  Territory  there  flows  a  re- 
markable   and   mighty   stream,    the   Yukon   River, 


2  CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

which  not  only  furnished  the  name  to  this  domain, 
but  with  its  tributary  streams  constitutes  practicably 
the  only  artery  of  commerce,  development,  and  civi- 
lization within  the  territorial  boundaries.  Rising 
within  fifteen  miles  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  at  Dyea 
Inlet  on  the  southern  boundary  of  the  country,  the 
Yukon  rips  and  tears  its  irresistible  way  north  by 
west  about  one  thousand  miles,  where  it  crosses  the 
Arctic  Circle  and  turning  westward  flows  more  than 
twelve  hundred  miles  through  the  middle  of  Alaska 
until  it  loses  itself  in  the  icy  waters  of  the  Pacific. 
Peculiar  among  rivers  is  the  extent  of  its  naviga- 
bility, for  steamboat  navigation  begins  at  Lake 
Bennet,  not  quite  forty  miles  north  of  Dyea  Pass, 
where  rise  the  streams  that  feed  the  waters  of  the 
lake.  From  the  head  of  navigation,  and  I  refer  to 
steamboat  navigation,  to  the  outlet  of  the  river  in 
Bering  Sea  the  distance  is  approximately  twenty-five 
hundred  miles,  over  which  large-size  steamers  op- 
erate all  summer,  excepting  three  and  one-half  miles 
at  the  canyon  and  rapids,  where  the  steamboats  could 
run  down-stream,  but  by  reason  of  the  current  it 
would  be  impossible  to  get  them  up-stream.  And 
this  navigability  over  so  much  of  its  course  seems 
to  be  characteristic  not  only  of  the  main  artery  of 
the  Yukon,  but  holds  as  to  its  tributary  streams,  as 
the  Tahkini,  the  Teslin,  the  Pelly,  Stewart,  Tanana, 
Koyukuk,  Porcupine,  and  the  White  rivers  are  navi- 
gable for  very  considerable  distances  by  the  large 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON  3 

flat-bottomed  steamboats  of  the  Mississippi  River 
type. 

Naturally  and  inevitably  the  course  of  settlement 
and  development,  following  the  lines  of  least  resist- 
ance, is  found  along  this  stream  and  its  subarteries. 
Indeed,  without  a  single  exception,  unless  it  be  a  few 
clustering  mining  camps,  there  is  no  settlement  of 
the  dignity  of  a  village  within  this  northland,  but  is 
found  upon  the  river.  Few  indeed  are  the  cities; 
when  we  have  mentioned  White  Horse,  Caribou, 
Selkirk,  Teslin,  Ogilvie,  Fortymile,  and  Dawson, 
we  have  mentioned  them  all  and  by  courtesy  have 
included  several  that  are  questionable  as  being  even 
of  village  dignity.  They  are  all  on  the  Yukon  or 
its  tributaries  and  there  are  none  elsewhere.  The 
Yukon  courses  for  most  of  its  length  through  a 
mighty  sea  of  mountains,  rising  like  a  petrified  ocean 
on  either  side  of  the  river  with  green  and  brown  and 
grey  slopes  merging  into  crests  of  eternal  snows. 
It  is  truly  a  mighty  wilderness,  a  land  of  immense 
silence  and  mystery,  and  of  incomparable  beauty. 
It  is  pre-eminently  a  land  of  the  hunter,  whether  the 
hunt  be  the  lure  of  the  gold  hidden  within  the  moun- 
tains, or  the  fur-bearing  animals  in  the  forests,  or 
the  faunal  life  that  calls  to  the  sportsman  seeker  for 
big  game.  It  is  the  land  of  the  Klondike;  It  is  the 
specially  favored  home  of  the  valuable  black  and 
silver  fox;  it  is  the  greatest  hunting  field  for  big 
game   on  the   North  American   Continent.     Here 


4  CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

alone,  on  a  single  hunting  expedition,  can  the  sports- 
man obtain  moose,  caribou,  mountain  sheep,  goats, 
and  grizzly  bear,  and  the  hunting  fields  are  ample 
and  the  game  plentiful. 

The  sportsman  who  would  visit  the  game  ranges 
of  this  country  must  go  prepared,  and  preparation 
involves  a  very  considerable  element  of  time  as  com- 
munication with  the  interior  is  very  slow,  particu- 
larly in  winter  season.  It  was  in  the  fall  of  19 13 
that  the  writer  planned  his  expedition  to  the  Yukon 
for  the  season  of  19 14.  After  considerable  investi- 
gation it  was  decided  to  go  from  Seattle  to  Skagway, 
Alaska,  by  boat,  thence  by  rail  across  the  White 
Pass,  a  distance  of  one  hundred  miles  inland  to 
White  Horse,  thence  by  pack  train  westward  by 
north,  following  the  valleys,  to  Lake  Kluane,  and 
then  westward  across  the  mountains  to  the  eastern 
slopes  of  the  coast  range,  where  St.  Elias  and  Mt. 
Natazhat  raise  their  glistening  snow  crests  to  the  sky. 
The  problem  of  guides  is  always  an  important  one 
for  any  kind  of  a  hunt,  and  this  is  particularly  true 
of  the  country  we  proposed  to  visit,  as  it  is  necessary 
that  the  guides  know  the  game  ranges  and,  in  view 
of  the  few  men  living  in  the  interior  and  away  from 
the  regular  lines  of  travel,  suitable  guides  are  diffi- 
cult to  obtain. 

Indeed,  the  guides  are  not  guides  at  all,  but  are 
men  who  are  living  in  the  remote  parts  of  the  coun- 
try engaged  in  the  business  of  trapping  fur-bearing 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON  5 

animals  for  sale.  In  the  summer  season  there  is  no 
trapping,  so  these  seekers  of  fur  for  a  couple  of 
months  during  the  summer,  and  for  the  considera- 
tion of  ten  dollars  per  day,  become  guides  for 
sportsmen  desiring  to  visit  the  particular  game  fields 
with  which  the  guides  may  be  familiar.  Oliver 
Wolcott,  Griscom  Bettle,  Alfred  Hoyt,  Heyward 
Cutting,  and  the  writer  composed  the  expedition  to 
visit  the  game  ranges  mentioned,  and  after  consid- 
erable effort  and  an  even  greater  delay  due  to  irreg- 
ular and  slow  mail  communications  with  the  interior, 
promising  guides  were  engaged  for  the  expedition. 

Next  to  having  the  proper  guides,  the  element  of 
suitable  equipment  is  important  in  a  successful  ex- 
pedition into  the  interior.  The  outfit  is  the  usual 
pack-horse  equipment,  since  all  provisions,  personal 
outfit,  and  camp  impedimenta  must  be  loaded  on  the 
pack  animals,  and  consists  of  pack  saddles,  alforjas 
(being  canvas  receptacles  with  leather  loops  to  fit 
over  the  horns  of  the  pack  saddles  and  big  enough 
to  carry  about  one  hundred  pounds  on  each  side  of 
the  horse),  hitch  ropes,  canvas  pack-covers,  pack- 
horse  bells,  hobbles,  horseshoeing  outfit.  For  rid- 
ing horses  one  must  have  saddles,  bridles,  gun  boot 
or  scabbard  to  carry  rifle,  and  war  bag  or  saddle  bag 
to  carry  such  small  items  as  one  may  frequently  re- 
quire while  on  the  trail. 

One's  personal  equipment  permits  of  but  little 
latitude,  since  one  Is  limited  as  to  the  amount  of 


6         CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

personal  outfit  by  the  fact  that  horses  are  few  and 
their  carrying  capacity  absolutely  limited.  Such 
items,  however,  as  go  into  the  personal  outfit  are 
important  and  are  indispensable.  Footwear  is  the 
first  element,  and  should  be  the  best  and  strongest 
hunting  boots  obtainable,  preferably  two  pairs  of 
hunting  boots,  not  more  than  twelve  inches  high,  and 
calked  well  for  rock  work  in  climbing  mountains. 
Four  pair  of  heavy  woolen  lumberman's  sox  are 
indispensable,  which  with  two  pair  of  heavy  woolen 
undershirts  and  the  same  number  of  drawers  of  like 
weight  make  the  next-to-the-skin  outfit.  Woolen 
riding  trousers  are  strongly  recommended  by  the 
writer,  certainly  khaki  or  corduroy  trousers  are  al- 
most prohibited.  Any  kind  of  heavy  flannel  or 
wool  hunting  shirt  will  suflice,  but  the  regular  lum- 
berman's cruiser  shirt,  with  its  many  pockets  and 
its  almost  complete  imperviousness  to  ordinary  rain, 
makes  it  desirable  above  any  hunting  shirt  with 
which  the  writer  is  familiar.  Any  felt  hat  is  good. 
The  regular  army  hat  is  particularly  good.  Gaunt- 
lets should  be  of  such  size  as  to  be  worn  over  wool 
gloves  when  it  is  very  cold.  A  head  net  as  defense 
against  insects  is  necessary  part  of  the  time.  To  this 
trousseau  one  should  add  a  parkie,  with  fur  around 
the  face  and  wrists,  as  it  weighs  but  one  pound,  but 
will  keep  you  warm  and  keep  out  the  wind  and  chill 
that  one  meets  on  the  pinnacles  of  the  mountains. 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON  7 

and  a  good  sweater  and  rainproof  slicker  to  be  used 
when  riding  completes  the  clothing  list. 

Binoculars  are  absolutely  necessary,  preferably 
eight  or  ten  power  in  order  to  locate  game  and  de- 
termine the  size  of  the  heads  before  commencing 
a  stalk  up  thousands  of  feet  and  involving  a  half  a 
day's  climb.  A  camera  is  a  luxury  and  involves 
carrying  extra  weight,  but  it  is  the  one  luxury  which 
should  not  be  eliminated.  In  the  matter  of  fire- 
arms, experts  are  not  entirely  agreed  as  to  caliber, 
though  the  consensus  of  opinion  seems  to  be  in  favor 
of  a  high-power  rifle.  Personally  the  writer 
strongly  commends  the  7  mm.  or  8  mm.  Mannlicher, 
or  Mauser  rifle,  on  account  of  its  great  carrying 
power  and  energy  and  light  weight,  as  he  believes 
less  wounded  game  escapes  than  when  one  uses 
smaller  calibers.  The  8  mm.  Mannlicher  used  by 
the  writer  and  the  8mm.  Mauser  used  by  his  com- 
panions were  ideal  in  every  respect  and  no  wounded 
game  escaped. 

The  selection  of  proper  bedding  for  the  Yukon 
is  an  item  as  to  which  one  should  not  make  the 
wrong  choice.  Blankets  positively  are  not  to  be 
considered,  as  they  involve  too  much  weight  for 
proper  warmth.  Sleeping  robes  are  almost  entirely 
used,  and  in  the  choice  of  robes  one  may  have  a 
large  variety  from  which  to  choose:  the  lynx  skin 
robe,  those  of  reindeer  skin,  wolf,  gopher,  and  fox 


8  CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

are  all  used  somewhat,  but  for  lightness,  durability, 
and  warmth,  to  say  nothing  of  cleanliness,  the  best 
robe  is  that  made  of  eiderdown.  Of  these  there  are 
a  number  that  are  good  and  there  is  one  that  is  par- 
ticularly satisfactory.  It  is  a  robe  ninety  inches 
square,  the  side  next  to  the  body  being  composed  of 
very  thick,  soft  kersey  wool,  the  outside  being  of  a 
closely  woven  waterproof  canvas,  and  between 
these  is  one  and  one-half  inches  of  eiderdown  filling, 
blown  into  cambric  partitions  under  heavy  air  pres- 
sure, and  making  a  very  soft  bed  and  one  which  is 
warm  in  the  most  severe  weather  even  in  the  open. 
This  robe  can  be  used  as  a  blanket  in  which  one  rolls 
oneself,  or  by  having  rings  and  clasps  placed  on  the 
edges  and  bottom  it  can  be  used  as  a  sleeping  bag 
of  sufficient  dimensions  so  that  one  can  roll  about 
in  it  with  entire  comfort.  It  weighs  about  twelve 
pounds  and  packs  down  to  a  small  roll.  A  good 
skinning  knife,  carborundum  stone,  hypodermic  sy- 
ringe, thermometer,  aneroid  barometer,  steel  meas- 
uring tape,  medicines,  bandages,  and  a  few  toilet 
articles,  with  ammunition  for  gun  and  films  for 
camera,  complete  one's  personal  equipment  and  is 
really  about  all  the  traffic  will  bear. 

Naturally  in  the  Yukon  one's  shelter  is  a  tent, 
and  in  view  of  the  fact  that  tentmakers  have  flour- 
ished since  the  days  of  Omar,  the  tent  item  would 
appear  easy  of  solution.  The  writer  used  a  wall 
tent  made  of  a  silk  material,  green  in  color,  by  rea- 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON         9 

son  of  the  excess  amount  of  daylight  in  the  north- 
land  in  summer.  This  tent  was  thoroughly  water- 
proof, weighed  the  minimum,  and  absolutely  mos- 
quito-proof, having  a  mosquito-proof  front  and 
mosquito-proof  windows,  two  in  each  wall,  and  one 
in  the  back  of  the  tent.  The  winged  pests  of  the 
North  could  not  crawl  under  the  tent  because  of  a 
waterproof  sod  cloth  sewed  into  the  sides,  front, 
and  back,  while  the  windows  and  mosquito-proof 
front  barred  all  other  openings  and  yet  permitted 
a  maximum  of  ventilation. 


CHAPTER  II 

"  Have  you  gazed  on  naked  grandeur,  where  there's  noth- 
ing else  to  gaze  on, 

Set  pieces  and  drop-curtain  scenes  galore, 

Big  mountains  heaved  to  heaven,  which  the  binding  sun- 
set blazon. 

Black  canyons  where  the  rapids  rip  and  roar  ?  '* 

To  the  hunter  of  big  game  the  long  journey  by 
train  or  boat  to  the  jumping-off  place  on  the  edge 
of  the  game  ranges  is  ordinarily  an  unmitigated 
bore,  endurable  only  by  reason  of  the  thought  of 
the  ultimate  goal.  It  is,  however,  otherwise  on  a 
journey  to  the  Yukon:  time  passes  rapidly,  every 
moment  is  one  of  interest,  and  the  scenic  beauties  of 
the  journey  outrun  one's  most  vivid  imagination. 

On  the  29th  of  July,  laden  with  guns,  ammunition, 
camera,  sleeping  robes,  and  countless  other  items  of 
equipment,  we  set  sail  from  Seattle  by  a  large  and 
comfortable  ocean-going  steamer  bound  for  the 
Golden  North  by  way  of  the  Inland  Passage,  a  run 
of  about  one  thousand  miles  through  the  most  won- 
derful inland  ocean  in  the  world,  where  only  at  three 
points  and  then  only  for  a  few  hours  Is  the  traveler 
subjected  to  even  the  possibilities  of  discomfort 
from  sailing  a  tempestuous  sea. 

10 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        ii 

Six  hours  out  from  Seattle  the  ship  enters  the 
three-hundred-mile  Strait  of  Geor'gia,  a  passage  be- 
tween Vancouver  Island  and  the  Canadian  main- 
land with  hundreds  of  islands  between  —  a  strait  so 
narrow  that  it  seems  one  might  almost  toss  a  stone 
ashore  from  either  side  of  the  ship.  On  either  side 
rise  Titan  peaks  rank  upon  rank,  their  lower  slopes 
covered  with  dense  forestration  of  enormous  trees 
of  the  evergreen  family,  while  above  the  timber- 
line  the  rocky  front  climbs  up  to  the  glacial  fields 
and  snow-caps  cutting  the  sky  line.  The  way  is  so 
tortuous  that  one  looking  ahead  never  sees  more 
than  two  miles  of  the  course,  and  always  off  the 
bow  looms  the  gigantic  peaks  that  challenge  descrip- 
tion and  make  our  supply  of  adjectives  seem  fu- 
tile. 

When  we  are  certain  that  the  navigator  Intends  to 
ram  the  mountain,  the  course  is  changed,  and,  sur- 
rounded by  the  majesty  of  mountains,  we  again  see 
our  course  for  another  couple  of  miles. 

The  air  Is  crisp  but  not  chilly,  as  the  Japan  cur- 
rent has  considerably  modified  the  coastal  climatic 
conditions;  the  sunlight  is  intense  and  there  is  no 
monotony  to  the  wonderful  panorama.  Waterfalls 
dropping  hundreds  of  feet  down  the  mountain  sides, 
as  flashing  strokes  of  living  white  against  the  green 
rock,  and  snow  slides  that  cut  gigantic  swaths 
through  the  forest  slopes,  add  to  the  traveler's  In- 
creasing Interest  in  a  moving  picture,  the  major  note 


12        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

of  which  Is  majesty  and  power  beyond  words  to 
express. 

It  was  while  sitting  on  the  deck,  oppressed  by  the 
sense  of  the  smallness  of  things  artificial  and  the 
majesty  of  the  mountains  through  which  our  watery 
trail  was  taking  us,  that  I  first  heard  the  story  of 
the  birth  of  the  Golden  Klondike  from  a  man  who 
had  mucked  and  delved  for  the  gold  In  this  country 
of  wonders  long  before  the  Klondike  was  discov- 
ered; who  knew  the  discoverers  as  comrades  and 
fellow  tollers  and  sufferers  In  a  land  which  has  use 
only  for  the  strong  In  body  and  the  stout  of  heart. 
The  story  was  so  simply  told  that  I  must  relate  It 
as  It  came  to  me,  even  though  It  is  perchance  outside 
the  big  game  field.  It  is,  however,  a  real  hunting 
story,  one  that  I  have  verified,  and  as  such  I  submit 
it  to  the  reader's  verdict  as  to  whether  or  not  It 
should  be  included. 

"  As  far  back  as  1894  there  had  been  a  few  pros- 
pectors from  Ogilvie  trading  post,  who  had  been 
doing  some  work  in  the  vicinity  of  Klondike  River 
and  Eldorado  and  Bonanza  creeks,  but  the  pay  dirt 
was  scarce  and  the  prospect  of  anything  good 
seemed  to  grow  less  as  each  party  returned  for  grub 
to  Ogilvie  to  report  failure.  Bob  Henderson,  a 
sailor  from  Nova  Scotia,  had  come  north  to  try  his 
fortune  in  the  search  for  gold,  and  for  several  years, 
in  spite  of  poor  luck,  stuck  to  the  Klondike  country 
in  a  belief  that  he  would  finally  make  a  real  strike. 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        13 

In  the  spring  of  1896  Bob  cleaned  up  a  little  over  six 
hundred  dollars,  which  was  not  so  bad  for  a  sailor 
who  had  never  been  in  a  frozen  country  before,  and 
after  his  clean  up  he  prospected  around  until  he 
found  gold  on  Quartz  Creek,  which  he  called  '  Gold 
Bottom.*  Here  he  found  two-cent  prospect  (mean- 
ing two  cents  of  gold  to  the  pan)  and  returned  to 
Ogilvie  for  provisions,  which  ran  out  in  a  couple 
of  months.  In  July,  1896,  he  was  going  down  one 
of  the  tributaries  of  the  Klondike  for  more  provi- 
sions, when  he  met  George  Washington  Carmac, 
and  in  accordance  with  the  unwritten  miner's  code 
told  Carmac  of  his  strike  on  Gold  Bottom  and  in- 
vited him  to  come  up  and  stake  some  ground.  Car- 
mac at  this  time  was  fishing  for  salmon  with  his 
Indian  friends,  among  them  being  Skookum  or 
*  strong '  Jim,  and  Tagish  or  *  no  good '  Charlie. 
About  three  weeks  later  Carmac,  Skookum  Jim,  and 
Tagish  Charlie,  with  gold  pan,  spade,  and  other  out- 
fit, started  out  to  look  up  Bob  Henderson  and  his 
find.  Going  up  Bonanza  Creek,  while  panning  for 
fun  during  a  rest,  they  discovered  ten-cent  pan,  but 
they  agreed  to  say  nothing  about  it  until  they  tested 
the  ground  farther,  but  would  come  back  and  work 
It  in  case  they  found  nothing  better. 

"  After  very  hard  travel  in  the  valley  they  crossed 
over  the  divide  between  Eldorado  and  Bonanza 
creeks,  and  almost  out  of  grub  and  no  tobacco 
reached  Henderson's  camp.     Henderson  for  some 


14        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

reason,  either  because  he  did  not  like  the  Indians 
or  because  of  shortage  of  his  own  supplies,  refused 
to  sell  them  anything,  and  since  they  had  not  found 
any  prospect  that  looked  anywhere  near  as  good  as 
their  ten-cent  pan  on  Bonanza,  they  decided  to  go 
back. 

"  Before  they  had  gone  far  their  grub  was  en- 
tirely gone,  they  were  weak  and  hungry,  and  the 
going  was  hard  and  slow,  and  they  were  almost  at 
the  end  of  their  strength.  To  keep  body  and  soul 
together  they  decided  to  hunt  moose  for  one  day, 
so  they  separated,  and  Skookum  Jim  finally  killed 
a  moose,  after  which  he  called  to  his  brother  Charlie 
and  to  Carmac  to  come  to  him.  While  waiting  for 
them  he  cut  a  piece  of  raw  moose  meat  to  eat  and 
went  down  to  the  creek  to  drink,  lying  flat  on  his 
stomach,  gulping  the  water.  It  sure  does  pay  to 
drink  in  the  Yukon  country,  for  as  Jim  finished 
drinking,  while  still  hanging  over  the  basin  of  the 
creek,  he  saw  in  the  sands  more  pure  gold  than  he 
had  ever  seen  before,  and  Klondike,  the  greatest 
gold  producing  camp  in  history,  was  at  that  moment 
born.  Jim  said  nothing  to  Carmac  and  Charlie 
when  they  came  up,  as  starving  men  do  not  talk 
until  they  have  fed.  The  moose  was  quickly 
cooked  and  the  three  had  a  big  feed.  Then  Jim 
showed  them  his  find. 

"  Two  days  they  stayed,  panning  and  testing  the 
dirt  and  getting  pay  beyond  even  their  own  belief; 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        15 

then  they  decided  to  stake  and  record,  but  they  got 
into  a  row  as  to  who  should  stake  discovery  claim. 
Jim  rightfully  claimed  it  as  he  discovered  it;  Carmac 
claimed  it  on  the  ground  that  Jim  was  an  Indian  and 
would  not  be  allowed  to  record  the  claim.  This,  of 
course,  was  wrong,  but  they  settled  the  trouble  by 
Carmac  staking  Discovery  claim,  while  Skookum 
Jim  staked  Number  One  claim  above  Discovery  and 
Taglsh  Charlie  staked  Number  Two  claim  below 
Discovery  on  August  17,  1896.  Poor  Henderson, 
after  his  two  years'  work  and  proclaiming  his  find 
to  every  one,  only  got  a  very  ordinary  claim  in  the 
new  field.  Within  two  years'  time  Skookum  Jim's 
claim,  worked  by  hand  methods  of  shoveling  and 
sluicing,  had  paid  about  a  million  and  a  half  dollars, 
while  Carmac's  claim  and  Charlie's  were  quite  as 
good  pay.  Their  ground  has  all  been  worked  out 
a  long  time  ago  as  far  as  ordinary  methods  are  con- 
cerned, but  the  Guggenheims  bought  the  properties 
with  many  others  near  Dawson  and  are  still  work- 
ing them  by  dredges  at  considerable  profit." 

The  story  as  told  by  my  fellow  traveler  was  im- 
mensely interesting,  and  as  I  sat  silent  under  its 
spell  and  wondered  if  any  of  the  numerous  pros- 
pectors bound  north  on  our  boat  might  be  destined 
for  such  a  marvelous  find,  the  narrator  turned  to 
me  and  with  the  earnest  air  of  a  man  giving  very 
sage  advice  said,  "  I  have  told  you  a  true  hunting 
story,  and  the  moral  is,  when  you  are  hunting  and 


i6        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

come  to  a  stream  to  drink,  drink  deep,  but  do  not 
leave  the  pool  until  you  have  looked  at  the  sands 
beneath  the  water.'* 

At  the  northern  end  of  Vancouver  Island  the 
steamer  crosses  Queen  Charlotte  Sound,  a  distance 
of  about  sixty  miles  on  the  open  sea,  until  the  nar- 
row, protected  passage  between  the  islands  and 
mainland  is  again  reached.  Along  the  course  are 
numerous  salmon  canneries,  while  the  fishing  boats 
with  their  cargoes  continually  ply  up  and  down  the 
narrow,  salt  river  between  the  mountains.  Oppo- 
site Prince  of  Wales  Island  lies  the  Alaskan  town  of 
Ketchikan,  a  city  built  upon  a  hill,  as  the  mountains 
rise  from  the  very  water's  edge.  A  rushing  stream 
tears  its  way  between  two  mountains  and  passes 
through  the  town.  And  it  is  an  interesting  sight  to 
go  up  to  the  bridge  near  the  falls  and  watch  the 
silver  horde  of  salmon  working  up-stream  and 
climbing  the  falls.  Several  hours  beyond  Ketchi- 
kan the  town  of  Wrangel  is  reached;  the  chief  inter- 
est in  this  place  for  the  traveler  centers  about  the 
totem  poles,  which  are  grotesque,  heraldic  monu- 
ments of  painted  and  carved  wood  from  ten  to  forty 
feet  high,  representing  the  tribal  and  family  identity 
of  the  individual  Indian  who  has  erected  the  par- 
ticular monument.  Upon  the  decease  of  a  man  at 
the  head  of  a  family  a  totem  was  erected  to  his 
memory  in  front  of  the  abode  of  his  successor. 
The  totem  pole  seems  to  be  confined  to  the  natives 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        17 

of  the  coast  In  Southwestern  Alaska,  as  the  North- 
ern tribes  and  the  Eskimos  have  no  such  symbolic 
monuments.  A  short  distance  from  Wrangel  the 
Stikine  River,  coming  down  from  the  Cassiar  Moun- 
tains, furnishes  a  route  whereby  the  big  game 
hunter  may  find  ingress  to  the  splendid  hunting  far 
back  in  the  Cassiar  Range. 

After  leaving  Wrangel  and  passing  through  Fred- 
erick Sound  Into  Stephen's  Passage,  we  began  to 
encounter  floating  icebergs,  being  masses  of  ice  of 
the  deepest  cerulean  blue  color  that  had  fallen  and 
cracked  off  the  Ice  wall  of  Taku  Glacier  and  were 
floating  about  in  the  narrow  passage,  a  menace  to 
navigation  but  very  Interesting  to  the  traveler.  Ap- 
proaching Taku  Inlet  a  marvelous  scene  is  pre- 
sented; Taku  Glacier,  a  gigantic  wall  of  blue  Ice, 
seared  with  crevasses  and  tossed  Into  minarets  and 
spires,  rises  far  back  at  the  very  tops  of  the  moun- 
tains and  descends  as  a  mighty  river  of  solid  Ice 
hundreds  of  feet  thick  down  to  the  sea,  pushing  and 
cutting  its  relentless  way  between  the  mountains. 
About  two  hours'  run  north  of  Taku  Inlet  we  come 
to  Juneau,  the  capital  of  Alaska ;  and  to  Treadwell, 
across  the  narrows,  where  are  located  the  famous 
Treadwell  mines.  Ahead  lies  the  last  stretch  of 
our  journey  by  steamship,  as  eight  hours'  sailing 
through  the  mountain-girt,  natural  passage  called 
Lynn  Canal  brings  us  to  the  once  famous  gateway 
o'  the  Golden  North,  Skagway. 


1 8        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

To-day  this  city  slumbers  peacefully  in  a  gulch 
whose  front  is  gently  washed  by  the  blue  waters  of 
the  Pacific,  while  from  either  side  rise  the  titanic 
rocky  walls  of  snow-clad  mountains  that  veil  their 
shoulders  in  the  mists  and  lift  their  hoary  crests  into 
the  sunshine  above  the  clouds.  The  streets  are 
quite  deserted,  the  glaring  emptiness  of  many  shop 
windows  is  eloquent  of  business  activities  that  lie  in 
the  past,  and  even  the  forward  look  of  the  inhabi- 
tants is  a  hope  for  a  return  of  the  activities  of  the 
days  that  are  gone.  Even  to-day  there  is  much  talk 
that  is  reminiscent  of  those  fond  yesterdays  of  1897, 
1898,  and  1899,  when  this  little  town  was  packed 
to  overflowing  with  thousands  of  men  who  had  come 
north  by  boat  to  pass  through  this  gateway  to  the 
Golden  Klondike,  discovered  by  Skookum  Jim. 

There  the  seasoned  woodsman  and  the  veriest 
tenderfoot,  the  experienced  and  the  self-reliant 
Western  miner  and  the  pitifully  unqualified  city 
bookkeeper,  the  fit  and  the  unfit,  in  multitudes,  with 
the  common  spur  of  golden  expectations,  jostled 
each  other  and  made  merry  for  a  day  or  so  before 
starting  up  the  cruel  White  Pass  trail  over  the  moun- 
tains that  hem  in  the  town. 

Of  all  the  hordes  of  real  pioneers,  adventurers, 
and  gold-crazed  people  who  streamed  through  this 
port  of  entry  into  the  Northern  wilderness,  the  name 
of  "  Soapy  Smith "  seems  to  live  longest  in  the 
memories  of  Skagway,  probably  due  to  the  fact  that 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        ij 

Soapy  was  not  only  a  very  live  person  while  he 
breathed  the  air  of  this  planet,  but  in  Skagway  he 
became  an  institution,  and  being  an  institution  his 
memory  is  still  green,  even  as  the  grass  that  grows 
over  his  upturned  toes. 

In  the  glory  days  of  Skagway  the  boat  discharg- 
ing its  varied  and  motley  human  cargo  that  goes  to 
make  up  the  gaiety  of  nations,  landed  on  the  dock 
a  hitherto  mild  and  harmless  Western  gambler 
named  Soapy  Smith,  who  in  the  favorable  climate 
of  Skagway  developed  talents  of  organization,  until 
within  a  short  time  he  found  himself  at  the  head  of 
a  gang  of  outlaws.  Soapy  became  obsessed  with 
the  delusion  that  his  mission  in  life  was  to  relieve 
all  incoming  gold  seekers  of  their  often  too  meager 
grubstakes  and  all  the  outgoing  miners  of  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  wealth  which  they  had  accumulated 
in  the  form  of  gold  dust  and  nuggets,  and  for  a  time 
he  plied  this  form  of  relief  work  vigorously  and 
successfully  and  usually  by  the  painless  method,  as 
few  of  his  victims  were  subjected  to  any  personal 
violence. 

He  was  a  man  of  resource,  and  his  methods  were 
as  varied  as  Joseph's  famous  coat.  It  is  related 
that  a  missionary  en  route  to  the  North  to  labor 
among  the  ungodly  stopped  in  Skagway,  and  one 
evening  addressed  the  crowd  and  sought  contribu- 
ti  >ns  for  missionary  work.  Soapy,  hovering  on  the 
outskirts  of  the  curious  but  none  too  responsive 


20        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

multitude,  sought  to  stimulate  interest  by  going  up 
to  the  missionary  and  taking  his  stand  beside  him, 
pleading  for  financial  aid  to  foreign  missions.  He 
is  reported  to  have  admitted  on  that  occasion  that 
he  did  not  know  what  a  church  was  like  on  the  in- 
side, but  if  they  were  anything  like  what  they  ap- 
peared to  be  on  the  outside  he  was  in  favor  of  them 
on  general  principles;  that  they  were  good  to  look 
at,  and  that  he  had  never  heard  of  a  real  town  that 
did  not  have  a  church,  and  that  he  was  backing  his 
own  belief  in  the  parson's  cause  by  contributing  one 
thousand  dollars.  Whereupon  he  gave  the  grateful 
missionary  one  thousand  dollars,  and  hurried  to  the 
outer  margin  of  the  crowd  to  escape  being  over- 
whelmed with  tears  of  gratitude.  Then,  with  such 
an  example  before  them,  the  crowd  broke  loose  and 
almost  inundated  the  missionary  with  contributions, 
until  with  bulging  pockets  he  made  his  way  to  his 
lodging  house.  Before  he  had  gone  far,  however. 
Soapy  slipped  out  from  between  two  buildings, 
poked  a  gun  into  the  parson's  stomach,  and  invited 
him  into  the  dark  behind  the  buildings,  where  he 
relieved  him  of  the  sum  total  of  the  mission  contri- 
bution and  then  sent  him  on  his  way. 

But  Soapy's  days  were  drawing  to  a  close ;  in  fact, 
he  became  too  much  of  an  institution  and  began  to 
get  on  the  nerves  of  the  people  of  Skagway,  to  such 
an  extent  that  they  decided  it  was  time  for  him  to 
move  to  a  warmer  or  healthier  climate.     They  held 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        21 

an  organization  meeting  on  one  of  the  docks  to 
consider  ways  and  means  to  accomplish  their  pur- 
pose. Soapy,  hearing  of  the  meeting,  decided  to 
attend  in  person,  and  wending  his  way  down  the 
dock  was  stopped  by  a  guard,  with  the  result  that 
the  guard  went  to  heaven  and  Soapy  also  made  an 
exit  via  the  bullet  route. 

But  he  still  lives  in  memory,  and  among  the  in- 
teresting sights  of  the  town  is  a  picture  of  Soapy, 
painted  on  a  silk  banner,  in  a  curio  store,  represent- 
ing him  sitting  in  an  arm-chair  in  the  morgue,  look- 
ing rather  stiff  and  peaceful,  becomingly  arrayed  in 
a  stiff  white  shirt  and  standing  collar,  with  white 
cuffs  showing  below  the  sleeves  of  his  coat  of  solemn 
black. 


CHAPTER  III 

**  The  trails  of  the  world  be  countless  and  most  of  the  trails 

be  tried, 
You  tread  on  the  heels  of  many,  till  you  come  where  the 

ways  divide; 
And  one  lies  safe  in  the  sunlight  and  the  other  is  dreary 

and  wan. 
Yet  you  look  aslant  at  the  Lone  Trail,  and  the  Lone  Trail 

lures  you  on." 

On  the  morning  of  August  4th  we  began  our 
journey  over  the  mountains  through  the  famous 
White  Pass,  which  is  a  thrilling  experience  even  as 
you  travel  in  a  modern  railway  observation  car;  for 
the  train  starts  at  sea  level  and,  following  the  tem- 
pestuous Skagway  River,  it  clings  to  the  blasted 
ledge  along  the  mountains,  climbing  ever  higher  to- 
ward the  clouds.  Far  below  in  the  purple  gulf  be- 
tween the  mountains  lies  the  old  White  Pass  trail, 
where  during  the  stampede  of  1897  men  dragged 
their  bleeding  feet  up  the  icy  and  rocky  stairway, 
carrying  their  provisions  and  outfit  on  their  own 
weary  backs,  in  order  to  reach  the  top  of  the  moun- 
tain barrier,  while  a  few  of  the  more  fortunate  em- 
ployed pack  horses  and  dogs  to  carry  their  equip- 
ment. 

22' 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        23 

The  distance  from  Skagway  to  the  summit  is  only 
eighteen  miles,  and  you  make  it  in  comfort  by  rail 
in  about  three  hours;  but  in  the  times  when  the  trail 
was  packed  with  gold-seekers  in  a  solid  stream  it 
took  days  to  force  their  way  to  the  top,  and  not  all 
who  started  were  destined  to  arrive,  as  many  died 
or  froze  to  death  before  they  reached  the  top  far 
above  timber-line.  Here  lies  Summit  Lake,  no 
bigger  than  a  park  pond,  and  here  rises  the  mighty 
Yukon.  In  the  days  that  are  gone  the  pioneers  in 
summer  went  down  to  timber  and  cut  trees  to  build 
boats,  if  they  had  not  carried  boats  with  them  over 
the  White  Pass  trail,  and  following  the  waterways 
through  lake  and  canyon  fought  their  way  north. 
In  winter  they  built  sledges  to  which  they  hitched 
dogs,  horses,  or  themselves,  according  to  their 
wealth.  From  the  railway  it  is  not  an  uncommon 
sight  to-day  to  look  upon  the  wrecks  of  canoes  and 
boats  and  broken  sledges  that  mark  the  northward 
course  of  the  empire. 

For  twenty-seven  miles  the  railroad  follows  along 
the  shore  of  the  blue,  sunlit  waters  of  Lake  Ben- 
net,  from  whose  surface  rise  mountains  of  old  rose 
color,  with  the  snow  peaks  In  the  background.  In 
the  late  afternoon  we  came  to  Miles  Canyon  and 
Whi^e  Horse  Rapids,  where  the  pioneers  of  the 
golc  rush  played  with  death  as  their  unwieldy  rafts 
and  ill-constructed  boats  were  whirled  into  the  leap- 
ing cauldron  in  the  mad  race  to  the  North.     Many 


24        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

who  played  paid  in  full  with  their  lives  the  price  of 
poor  equipment  and  inexperience.  Beyond  the  roar 
of  the  rapids  the  train  comes  to  the  little  town  of 
White  Horse,  which  for  us  was  jumping-off  place, 
from  which  our  last  letters  and  telegrams  were  to 
be  sent  home  and  from  which  we  faced  the  lone  trail. 

At  the  station  we  were  met  by  Tom  Dixon,  one  of 
our  guides,  with  whose  handwriting  we  had  become 
familiar  during  the  long  months  of  sporadic  cor- 
respondence, and  after  much  discussion  of  plans  and 
purposes  with  the  efficient-looking  woodsman  we 
adjourned  to  a  very  modern  grocery  and  outfitters* 
store  to  have  our  grub  list  put  up  and  packed  for  the 
morrow.  On  an  interior  expedition  your  grub  list 
practically  reduces  itself  to  the  army  menu,  con- 
sideration being  given  only  to  highly  nutritive  values. 
The  staples  are  rice,  sugar,  flour,  tea,  bacon,  and 
beans  in  large  quantities,  with  a  plentitude  of  dried 
fruits,  being  apricots,  apples,  and  peaches,  which, 
with  raisins,  dried  onions,  dried  potatoes,  etc.,  fur- 
nish the  proper  amount  of  acid  necessary  to  avoid 
scurvy.  In  addition  to  coffee  and  cocoa  or  choco- 
late there  are  many  small  items  that  go  to  make  up 
the  load,  but  it  is  only  the  basic  elements  that  really 
count.  Only  a  limited  amount  of  lard  is  taken,  as 
the  fat  on  the  sheep,  caribou,  and  bear  furnishes  an 
abundance  of  lard  for  baking  and  cooking. 

While  we  were  giving  directions  for  packing  the 
provisions,  our  cook,  George  Bruce  Fisher,  who  was 


I.  FISHER,  THE  COOK,  AND  ALBERT,  INDIAN  GUIDE. 
2.  TAKING  HORSES  ACROSS  SLIMS  RIVER. 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        25 

to  accompany  the  expedition,  came  into  the  store 
and  was  introduced  all  around.  Fisher,  we  after- 
wards learned,  was  a  most  amiable  man  who  had 
lived  in  the  wilderness  for  years,  a  man  of  immense 
general  efficiency  around  a  camp,  and  a  culinary 
artist  of  real  ability,  and  withal  a  smile  that  was 
both  perennial  and  contagious,  even  under  circum- 
stances that  were  trying.  Bruce  was  particularly 
happy  on  this  evening  as  this  was  his  annual  visit  to 
town  after  a"  year's  isolation  in  the  wilderness,  but 
we  had  to  insist  that  he  vise  the  grub  list. 

All  went  well  until  he  came  to  the  item:  "  Ten 
cakes  common  soap."  Bruce  looked  at  the  item  a 
moment  and  scratched  his  head  and,  turning  to  us 
with  a  look  of  wonderment,  said :  "  Ten  cakes  of 
soup."  We  then  explained  it  was  **  soap "  not 
"  soup,"  whereupon  Bruce  commenced  to  grin  and 
finally  exploded:  "  Awh,  hell,  cut  it  out;  we  don't 
need  it.  Why,  McGee,  who  was  panning  up  on  the 
creek,  had  four  cakes  of  soap  that  he  had  for  three 
years  and  when  he  went  outside  he  tried  to  give  'em 
away,  but  nobody  would  take  'em;  they  was  all 
right,  too,  'cause  three  of  'em  never  had  the  wrap- 
pers (  ff  and  the  other  one  didn't  even  have  the  let- 
ters on  it  wore  off."  This  was  rich,  but  did  not 
sound  well  from  a  cook,  but  our  doubts  were  need- 
less as  Bruce  was  the  most  cleanly  cook  it  has  been 
my  joy  to  know. 

The  morning  of  August  6  found  us  attired  In 


26        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

hunting  clothes,  ready  for  the  trail;  the  provision 
order  had  been  packed  in  boxes  and  canvas  bags  and 
looked  like  a  real  load.  Dixon  bought  a  half  a 
ton  of  horse  feed,  being  oats  at  the  current  White 
Horse  quotation  of  $210  per  ton;  it  seems  that  at 
White  Horse  all  prices  for  everything  conceivable 
are  on  a  war  basis  of  inflation,  with  all  advantage 
on  the  side  of  the  seller  and  the  purchaser  having 
no  alternative  except  unconditional  surrender.  The 
prices  for  provisions  are  beyond  belief,  and  ordi- 
nary baled  hay  for  horses  costs  $210  a  ton,  or  just 
ten  cents  a  pound  —  the  result  being  that  horses 
seldom  eat  hay. 

Dixon  had  brought  to  White  Horse  a  stout 
wagon,  drawn  by  four  horses,  and  a  buckboard 
which  would  seat  four  of  us,  and  the  plan  was  to 
travel  by  wagon  and  buckboard  along  the  river  val- 
lies  westward  to  Lake  Kluane,  a  distance  of  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  miles,  and  then  abandon  the  wagon 
for  pack-train  transport  across  the  mountains.  Ac- 
cordingly we  began  to  load  the  wagon  and  when  we 
had  finished  the  transport  groaned  under  a  weight 
of  7,500  pounds  of  provisions  and  outfit.  We 
started  the  wagon  with  George  Wright  as  driver 
and  expedition  horse  wrangler,  and  Bruce  the  cook 
and  two  of  our  party  riding  on  the  load;  we  started 
it  with  a  prayer,  because  we  suspected  our  prayers 
would  be  necessary  to  get  the  load  to  the  top.  The 
sand  was  deep  and  soft,  the  wheels  sank  into  the 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        27 

road,  but  George  Wright  was  a  wonderful  driver, 
and  by  frequently  resting  the  horses  on  the  way  up 
and  by  a  continuous  stream  of  persuasive  conversa- 
tion addressed  to  them  while  they  leaned  on  the 
traces,  the  crest  was  successfully  negotiated. 

Three  hours  later  the  buckboard,  with  the  rest  of 
our  party,  took  the  trail  of  the  transport  wagon  and 
overtook  it  at  the  bottom  of  another  smaller  hill 
about  eight  miles  from  town.  The  going  all  the 
afternoon  was  very  slow  by  reason  of  the  hills,  which 
though  not  high  were  heavy,  as  the  footing  was  soft. 
Much  of  the  way  we  walked  along  the  trail,  winding 
through  the  woods  of  spruce  and  pine,  while  the 
wagon  creaked  and  groaned  its  slow  onward  course 
around  the  hillsides.  The  sunlight  lingers  long  in 
this  north  country  even  in  August,  and  it  seemed  we 
had  been  facing  its  declining  western  glare  for  many 
hours  until  at  11.20  P.M.  we  went  into  camp  beside 
the  trail. 

The  daily  schedule  is  not  at  all  a  matter  of  a  cer- 
tain number  of  miles  or  a  certain  number  of  hours 
on  the  road,  but  is  determined  solely  by  the  con- 
siders tion  of  how  much  travel  the  horses  can  en- 
dure, and  that  varies  with  the  character  of  the  coun- 
try and  the  trail.  The  horses  were  given  a  good 
feed  of  oats  and  then  hobbled  and  turned  loose  to 
feed  upon  lush  grass  growing  beside  a  little  pond, 
while  the  rest  of  us  put  up  tents  and  the  fire  was 
started  and  supper  cooked,  after  which  we  sat  about 


28        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

the  camp  fire  until  the  coals  died  down  and  the  night 
chill  drove  us  to  the  warmth  of  our  sleeping  robes. 

To  get  up  with  the  sun  in  this  Northland  is  to 
stay  up  nearly  all  night,  which  no  one  ever  thinks  of 
doing.  I  have  no  data  on  the  rising  hour  of  the 
sun,  but  my  diary  shows  that  on  the  morning  of 
August  7  we  were  awakened  by  the  call  of  Bruce: 
"  Muck-a-muck,  muck-a-muck,"  which  is  Siwash  talk, 
meaning  "  something  to  eat.'*  We  rolled  out  of 
our  eiderdown,  to  find  the  sun  shining  brightly  even 
if  coldly  upon  a  frosty  landscape.  Force  of  habit 
is  strong,  so  we  plunged  our  heads  into  the  pond, 
manipulated  the  tooth  brush,  used  a  comb  on  our 
hair,  and  dove  into  the  oatmeal,  ham  and  eggs,  and 
bread  spread  out  on  the  ground  exposed  to  our  as- 
saults. The  horses  were  caught,  given  a  feed  of 
oats  and  harnessed,  and  we  made  an  early  start. 

The  going  is  rather  fair,  as  we  are  traveling  on 
the  winter  stageroad  from  White  Horse  to  Dawson, 
which  is  utilized  to. transport  freight  and  passengers 
on  sledges  after  the  freeze-up  ends  steamer  naviga- 
tion on  the  Yukon.  The  country  is  not  interesting 
as  the  route  is  largely  through  small  timber,  wind- 
ing around  the  sides  of  small  hills  to  slow  up  our 
progress.  We  walked  frequently  this  day,  and 
about  eleven  in  the  morning  reached  Tahkini  River, 
a  rapidly  flowing  stream  with  an  automatic  ferry 
which  the  Canadian  Government  considerately  main- 
tains for  those  who  use  the  road. 


I.  "  MUCK-A-MUCK  "  AT  DESERTED  CABIN. 
2.  HOME  CAMP  ON  ST.  CLAIR  RIVER. 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        29 

A  stout  steel  cable,  fifteen  feet  above  the  river 
surface,  is  stretched  from  shore  to  shore,  and  ropes 
attached  to  windlasses  on  both  ends  of  the  sixty-foot 
ferry  barge  lead  to  two  steel  pulleys  which  run 
freely  upon  the  cables,  as  trolley  wheels  on  a  wire. 
When  the  barge  is  loaded  you  wind  up  the  front 
windlass  a  bit  in  order  that  the  side  of  the  barge 
may  be  a  little  out  of  parallel  with  the  steel  cable 
and  the  course  a  diagonal  across  the  current  but 
heading  slightly  up-stream ;  the  current  does  the  rest, 
for,  as  it  strikes  the  side  of  the  barge,  it  propels  the 
craft  forward  until  it  slides  into  the  mud  on  the 
other  bank,  where  you  ease  the  wagon  down  the 
gang-plank  and  continue  among  the  hills. 

At  high  noon  we  stopped  at  a  small  pond  and 
turned  the  weary  horses  out  to  roll  and  to  feed  and 
generally  rest  up  for  a  couple  of  hours,  during  which 
we  cooked  dinner  and  had  our  "  muck-a-muck." 
The  small  black  flies  were  out  by  the.  millions  with 
an  activity  that  was  akin  to  that  of  the  busy  bee,  and 
head  nets  became  decidedly  in  vogue. 

In  the  afternoon  we  left  behind  us  the  Dawson 
trail  and  branched  off  to  the  westward  on  a  less 
frequently  traveled  wagon  track.  The  pace,  how- 
ever, was  faster,  as  we  ceased  plodding  up  hill  and 
down  dale  and  consistently  followed  the  valley  of 
the  Takini  River.  In  the  late  afternoon  we  crossed 
over  Little  River,  which  is  a  rapid,  rushing  affair 
of  not  much  width  and  which  seems  to  be  the  boun- 


30       CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

dary  of  the  mosquito  country,  as  we  Immediately 
encountered  a  heavy  advance  guard  and  met  rein- 
forcements with  every  mile  we  progressed. 

Along  the  wagon  tracks  we  saw  many  gophers, 
which  are  quite  like  the  Western  prairie  dogs  and 
are  quite  edible,  but  we  were  unable  to  secure  any 
of  them  for  supper  as  they  would  invariably  totter 
into  their  burrows  when  shot,  unless  they  were  in- 
stantly killed.  The  gopher  really  leads  a  life  of 
unusual  hazard  in  this  country  as  they  are  much 
sought  after  by  the  Indians,  who  use  their  skins  for 
blankets  and  their  flesh  for  food,  and  when  they  are 
not  being  hunted  by  the  natives  they  are  hunted  by 
the  grizzly  bears,  that  tear  up  the  ground  in  digging 
the  gopher  from  the  burrow.  Our  luck  was  bet- 
ter with  the  birds,  as  Wolcott  and  Hoyt  with  their 
.22  rifles  succeeded  in  adding  prairie  chicken  and 
partridge  to  our  provender. 

About  five  o'clock  it  began  to  get  cold,  and  in  an 
hour  the  mosquitoes  had  gone  to  whatever  place  the 
persistent  pests  go  to  get  warm.  The  horses  were 
going  slowly  and  stopping  frequently,  so  we  decided 
to  camp  by  the  roadside  about  7.30,  and  hobbled  the 
horses  and  turned  them  loose  for  the  night.  After 
supper  we  sat  about  the  fire  and  watched  a  wonder- 
ful moon  rise  across  the  snow-clad  mountain  peaks 
cutting  the  sky. 

August  8  dawned  bright  and  cold  with  a  half  an 
inch  of  ice  on  the  water  buckets  and  the  air  as  crisp 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        31 

as  fresh  lettuce.  The  horses,  which  we  had  hob- 
bled and  turned  out  to  feed  the  night  before,  were 
nowhere  to  be  seen,  and  there  was  not  even  a  sus- 
picion of  a  tinkle  in  the  frosty  air  from  the  bells  tied 
about  their  necks,  so  we  started  to  track  them,  and 
found  they  had  only  rambled  about  four  miles  on 
the  back  track.  These  horses  are  really  wonders 
when  it  comes  to  traveling  at  the  wrong  time;  in 
spite  of  having  their  front  feet  hobbled  close  to- 
gether, when  the  wild  impulse  strikes  they  start  out 
jumping,  kangaroo  fashion,  covering  distance  at  a 
rapid  pace.  In  spite  of  our  late  start  we  made  good 
time  on  the  road  with  not  many  hills,  and  about  6 
P.M.  descended  the  long  sand-hill  and  came  to  Cham- 
pagne Landing  at  the  bend  of  the  Dezadeash  River. 
This  place  is  rather  interesting,  as  a  man  named 
"  Shorty  "  Chambers,  inspired  by  a  belief  in  the  de- 
velopment of  mining  in  this  part  of  the  country,  has 
built  a  large  cabin  for  himself  with  many  bunks  for 
prospective  travelers,  besides  a  fine  large  log  barn  for 
his  own  horses  and  the  horses  of  others.  And  while 
he  waits  for  the  country  to  grow  he  hauls  provisions 
and  general  supplies  of  all  kinds  from  White  Horse, 
which  he  places  in  a  store  building,  also  of  logs,  and 
these  supplies  he  trades  and  sells  to  the  Indians  for 
furs.  The  Indians  have  built  many  winter  cabins 
of  logs  along  the  river  front,  and  *'  Shorty  "  does  a 
very  large  fur  business  at  an  excellent  profit  with  his 
native  customers.     His  place  looks  like  a  very  up-to- 


32        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

date  ranch,  with  Its  windmill  to  pump  water  Into 
the  cabin;  It  Is  Immaculately  clean  and  his  native 
wife  Is  an  excellent  cook. 

While  the  rest  of  us  put  up  the  tents  and  made 
camp  for  the  night,  Wolcott  and  Bettle  went  down 
to  the  river  and  killed  fish  for  supper.  Just  across 
the  river  are  some  high  mountains  that  look  as  If 
they  ought  to  be  fine  sheep  ranges,  but  Dixon  says 
they  have  been  killed  off  long  ago  by  the  Indians, 
who  have  also  killed  off  the  caribou  In  this  part  of 
the  country,  and  that  In  order  to  get  hunting  we  have 
to  travel  far  beyond  the  Indians'  range  of  activities. 

We  have  now  been  on  the  road  three  days,  and 
sixty-five  miles  to  the  westward  looms  the  snow  cur- 
tains of  the  St.  Ellas  range,  and  when  we  reach  the 
foot  of  those  first  mountains  we  are  not  halfway  to 
our  hunting  grounds  which  are  north  and  west  in 
the  maze  of  mountains.  One  Is  almost  Inclined  to 
sing  an  ancient  song:  "We  don't  know  where 
we're  going,  but  we're  on  the  way,"  but  since  the 
horses  are  standing  up  well  and  every  one  is  cheer- 
ful, it  looks  as  if  we  were  sometime  destined  to 
reach  the  promised  land. 

Six  o'clock  was  our  starting  hour  this  morning  of 
August  9,  the  horses  evidently  being  too  tired  to 
run  away  during  the  night.  There  were  a  few  bad 
sand-hills  early  In  the  day,  but  after  a  couple  of 
hours  we  found  ourselves  In  the  broad  valley,  six 
miles  wide,  through  which  winds  the  ribbon  of  the 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        33 

Dezadeash  River.  It  has  been  a  beautifully  bright, 
clear  day,  but  the  wind  from  the  west  is  cold  and 
penetrating,  and  both  sweaters  and  gloves  are  wel- 
come additions  to  our  outfit.  The  valley  is  exceed- 
ingly level,  with  a  floor  of  sand  and  small  pebbles; 
it  is  evidently  the  bottom  of  an  immense,  ancient, 
glacial  lake,  as  the  mountains  on  each  side  about 
four  hundred  feet  up  show  distinct  beaches  extending 
for  miles  as  the  ancient  water  level.  At  noon  the 
black  flies  were  out  in  force,  but  after  we  got  under 
way  again  we  had  but  little  annoyance  from  them. 
In  the  afternoon  our  course  again  led  us  into  the 
hills  where  the  footing  was  soft,  and  only  by  hard 
work  did  we  keep  from  being  bogged  up  in  the  mud. 
At  one  point,  in  order  to  avoid  a  deep  gulch 
washed  out  by  the  rains,  we  made  a  slight  detour 
and  ran  into  a  nasty  marshy  condition.  The  light 
buckboard  pulled  through  with  but  little  diflliculty, 
but  the  heavily  loaded  transport  wagon  went  into 
the  muck  and  slime  on  one  side  up  to  the  hubs  and 
simply  died.  Wright  addressed  the  horses  in  every 
known  language,  and  in  spite  of  his  urging  and  his 
best  line  of  talk,  with  the  aid  of  four  of  us  putting 
our  shoulders  to  the  wheels,  the  wagon  did  not 
budge.  We  then  cut  trees  into  short  lengths  and 
drove  them  into  the  mud  under  the  wheels  in  order 
to  make  an  artificial  bottom  to  the  seemingly  bot- 
tomless slime,  but  without  avail.  Finally  we  ob- 
tained some  trees  about  twenty  feet  long  and  seven 


34        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

inches  In  diameter  and  by  piling  logs  beside  the  hub 
and  using  the  long  tree  for  a  lever,  we  pried  the  back 
wheel  out  of  the  mud  and  blocked  it.  We  gave  the 
front  wheel  the  same  treatment,  and  then  started 
the  horses  and  In  this  way  gained  about  two  feet  ad- 
vance. After  repeating  this  procedure  we  reached 
solid  ground  and  cruised  ahead,  having  lost  only 
about  an  hour  and  a  half. 

After  leaving  the  mudhole  we  made  excellent  time, 
mostly  down-grade,  and  late  in  the  afternoon  came 
to  the  Aishihik  River,  which  comes  from  a  large 
lake  of  the  same  name  on  the  north  and  with  tre- 
mendous force  rips  and  roars  through  a  narrow  can- 
yon across  which  is  a  very  fair  log  bridge.  There 
are  a  number  of  Indian  log  cabins  at  this  point,  but 
the  Indians  are  all  away  at  the  lake  fishing  for  their 
winter  supply  of  dog  and  man  food,  being  white 
fish  and  salmon,  which  are  dried  and  smoked  for 
preservation.  Some  one  suggested  a  bath,  but  so 
momentous  a  suggestion  could  not  be  easily  decided, 
so  we  held  a  council  of  war,  and  finally  decided  the 
process  could  be  more  comfortably  undertaken  now 
than  later  when  we  should  be  in  higher  altitudes. 
The  outriders  of  the  St.  Ellas  range  are  only  thirty 
miles  away  as  the  crow  flies,  and  seem  much  nearer 
as  the  declining  sunlight  falls  across  their  wonder- 
ful snow  crests. 

August  10.  We  did  not  trouble  to  put  up  the 
tents  last  night  as  it  was  very  clear  and  cold,  and 


I.  OUTRIDERS  OF  ST.  ELIAS  RANGE. 
2.  ACROSS  BEAR  CREEK  SUMMIT. 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        35 

this  morning  found  us  up  for  breakfast  at  four 
o'clock.  Old  Snorty  and  Ginger,  two  of  the  horses, 
in  spite  of  being  hobbled,  rambled  away,  and  Dixon 
went  after  them.  They  certainly  must  have  de- 
cided to  take  a  journey,  for  Dixon  followed  their 
trail  for  a  number  of  miles  before  he  heard  their 
bells  down  in  the  river  bottom;  in  fact,  they  had 
strayed  eight  miles  from  camp  in  spite  of  hobbles, 
and  it  was  nearly  nine  o'clock  when  we  got  them 
back  and  ready  to  start. 

After  climbing  a  very  high  and  difficult  sand-hill 
we  went  down  into  the  broad  bottom  land,  and  not- 
withstanding our  late  start  we  lunched  at  Marshall 
Creek,  fifteen  miles  from  our  starting  point  of  the 
morning.  The  afternoon  found  us  making  fast 
time  along  the  bottom  lands  which  have  become 
much  wider,  being  about  twenty  miles  across  and 
covered  with  fine  grass  feed.  The  black  flies  were 
thick,  but  even  the  transport  horses  trotted  along 
the  level  course  so  the  flies  did  not  annoy  greatly. 
At  several  points  our  trail  cuts  through  willow  tim- 
bers running  down  into  the  bottoms. 

Here  we  note  the  remains  of  an  Indian  "  fence,'* 
utilized  in  making  a  "  drive  "  for  caribou.  The 
method  was  certainly  simple  and,  to  the  writer,  a 
novel  one  for  slaughtering  game  that  once  infested 
this  region.  The  Indians  decided  on  a  course  to 
build  the  fence  and  then  went  through  the  timber 
along  the  predetermined  line,   chopping  the  trees 


36        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

at  a  height  of  three  feet  and  five  feet,  but  only  cut- 
ting sufficiently  deep  to  enable  them  to  push  the  trees 
over  In  the  direction  of  the  line,  with  the  trunk  still 
held  at  the  three-foot  and  five-foot  cutting,  thus 
making  two  fairly  good  rails  or  barriers,  the  other 
end  of  the  tree  being  held  nearly  level  by  reason  of 
the  spreading  top  branches.  Other  trees  along  the 
line  would  be  felled  in  the  same  manner,  one  slightly 
overlapping  the  other,  and  so  on  for  many  miles, 
until  an  effective,  continuous  barrier  or  fence  was 
erected,  ofttimes  fifteen  miles  long. 

Another  "  fence  "  was  similarly  constructed  at 
some  considerable  distance,  sometimes  two  miles, 
from  the  first  fence,  running  In  the  same  general  di- 
rection, but  always  converging  with  the  other 
"  fence  "  at  an  apex,  which  was  usually  at  a  draw 
or  pocket  In  the  mountains  with  high  bluffs.  At 
the  proper  time  the  entire  tribe  would  gather,  and 
the  hunters  with  bows  and  arrows  would  post  them- 
selves In  force  at  the  apex  of  the  two  *'  fences  "  in 
the  pocket  or  blind  canyon  In  the  mountains.  The 
remainder  of  the  tribe,  men,  women,  and  children, 
in  great  numbers  would  go  out  where  the  caribou 
were  ranging,  and  form  an  Immense  circle  open  only 
on  the  side  that  led  between  the  two  "  fences." 
Then  with  much  noise  and  even  igniting  trees,  they 
would  close  In  slowly  on  the  caribou  herds,  which 
Inevitably  took  the  apparently  easiest  course  between 
the  "  fences  "  and  were  driven  to  slaughter  by  the 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        37 

hunters  In  the  blind  canyon.  These  "  fences  "  were 
In  such  condition  as  to  Indicate  that  they  had  been 
made  at  no  very  remote  period,  but  they  are  no 
longer  used  In  this  locality  as  the  caribou  have  been 
exterminated  on  this  particular  range. 

In  the  late  afternoon  we  left  the  bottom  land  at 
a  point  where  the  Dezadeash  turns  south,  through 
a  gap  In  the  towering  St.  Ellas  range,  and  joins  the 
Alsek  River,  which  tears  Its  way  to  the  Pacific. 
Our  road  began  to  climb  upward  through  the  timber, 
following  nearly  a  course  parallel  to  the  noisy  Bear 
Creek  coming  down  from  the  north.  We  camped 
at  the  foot  of  Bear  Creek  Mountain  about  seven 
o^clock  and  put  up  tents,  as  rain  threatened.  After 
supper  a  serlous-mlnded  rain  put  In  Its  appearance, 
but  across  the  valley  a  heavy  snow  was  falling  on 
the  St.  Ellas  range.  As  the  rain  persisted,  making 
things  uncomfortable,  we  turned  Into  our  tents  for 
an  early  start  up  the  summit  the  following  day. 

August  II.  We  were  up  and  ready  to  start  at 
6  A.M.,  with  the  road  In  bad  condition  after  the  rain 
which  lasted  all  night,  and  It  is  a  cold  gloomy  day 
with  the  leaden  clouds  hanging  low  on  the  moun- 
tains. Rivulets  of  water  were  running  down  the 
wagon  tracks  as  we  climbed  upward  to  Bear  Creek 
Pass  with  the  wind  blowing  strong  in  our  faces  and 
the  transport  splashing  in  the  mud  behind  us.  A 
fresh  grizzly  track  crossing  the  muddy  wagon  road 
looked  promising,  but  we  did  not  feel  we  had  time 


38        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

to  follow  into  the  heavy  timber.  A  red  fox,  sur- 
prised by  the  buckboard,  looked  at  the  occupants 
no  farther  away  than  forty  yards,  while  a  silver  gray 
fox  was  seen  a  bit  later,  trotting  along  three  hun- 
dred feet  away;  we  did  not  attempt  to  molest  them 
as  the  fur  was  not  prime. 

After  a  long  hard  pull  we  reached  the  summit  at 
an  altitude  of  2880  feet  and  began  to  slide  down  the 
boggy  road  at  a  pace  that  quite  made  up  for  our 
tedious  ascent,  so  that  by  noon  we  had  reached  the 
foot  of  the  mountain,  and  lunched  at  Jarvis  River. 
Some  of  us  caught  grayling  for  our  supper,  and  after 
the  horses  had  fed  and  rested  a  couple  of  hours  we 
forded  the  Jarvis  River  and  continued  our  westward 
course. 

The  buckboard  was  to  be  driven  rapidly  in  an  ef- 
fort to  reach  Kluane  Lake  that  night,  while  it  was 
planned  to  drive  the  transport  as  far  as  possible  and 
camp  for  the  night.  A  short  distance  after  starting 
we  began  to  wind  our  slow  way  up  Boutelier  Moun- 
tain, giving  the  horses  frequent  rests,  during  which 
we  tried  with  .22  rifles  for  ducks  on  the  little  ponds 
but  without  success. 

On  our  way  up  it  began  to  rain,  and  the  farther 
we  ascended  the  harder  it  rained  and  the  worse  the 
roads  became,  until  about  six  o'clock,  with  a  final 
lurch  and  groan,  the  transport  sank  in  the  clay  up  to 
the  axles  within  three  hundred  feet  of  the  summit  of 
Boutelier  Pass.     George  Wright  tried  cussing  and 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        39 

all  of  us  tried  cussing,  separately  and  in  unison,  but 
it  did  not  seem  to  help.  Then  we  got  down  to  real 
work,  collected  logs,  and  tried  to  block  and  pry  the 
wagon  out  of  the  tenacious  mire,  but  all  to  no  pur- 
pose. 

For  two  hours  we  worked  with  icy  fingers  in  the 
midst  of  the  driving  rain,  men  and  horses  striving  to 
release  the  wagon,  while  the  icy  peaks  close  by  on 
our  left  with  their  heavy  mantle  of  new-fallen  snow 
added  their  chill  to  our  discomfort.  We  finally  de- 
cided that,  since  we  could  not  pull  up  to  the  summit, 
we  would  hitch  the  horses  to  the  back  of  the  trans- 
port and  with  gravity  in  our  favor  pull  down-hill; 
but  this  did  not  work  well,  for  while  we  pulled  out 
of  the  particular  spot  where  we  were  mired,  we 
only  succeeded  in  getting  the  wagon  diagonally 
across  the  road  still  stuck  in  the  mud  and  tilting 
down-hill  at  an  angle  that  threatened  to  capsize  at 
any  attempt  at  movement. 

There  was  nothing  left  but  to  unload  the  trans- 
port, so  in  the  gathering  gloom  we  unpacked  half 
the  load  and  transported  flour,  feed,  sugar,  and 
many  boxes  upon  our  backs  to  the  summit  of  the 
pass.  Then  with  our  horses  we  were  able  to  bring 
up  the  wagon  to  the  top,  2750  feet  high,  where 
everything  was  loaded,  and  we  traveled  as  far  as 
an  abandoned  log  stable  with  leaky  roof,  which  had 
been  used  during  the  gold  stampede. 

Fisher  made  the  fire,  while  George  looked  after 


40        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

the  horses,  and  Hoyt,  with  the  writer,  fixed  up  a 
place  for  our  sleeping  robes  in  the  stable;  Wolcott 
was  busy  cleaning  fish.  Pitch  dark  we  sat  in  the 
rain  and  ate  supper,  which  was  not  particularly  good, 
as  Wolcott  had  forgotten  grayling  have  scales,  so 
we  had  them  just  as  *'  God  and  Nature  made  them, 
without  any  improvements,"  and  then  went  to  sleep 
in  the  filthy  stable  with  the  rain  leaking  through, 
but  still  cheerful  with  the  thought  that  the  morrow 
would  bring  us  to  Lake  Kluane,  where  we  would 
abandon  the  slow-going  wagon  transport  in  favor  of 
pack  train. 


CHAPTER  IV 

**  I  am  the  land  that  listens,  I  am  the  land  that  broods; 
Steeped  in  eternal  beauty,  crystalline  waters  and  woods. 
Long  I  have  waited  lonely,  shunned  as  a  thing  accurst, 
Monstrous,  moody,  pathetic,  the  last  of  the  lands  and  the 
first." 

August  12,  Making  an  early  start  from  our 
camp  on  Boutelier,  we  traveled  rapidly  down  the 
slope  and  at  9  a.m.  came  to  the  sunlit  shores  of 
beautiful  Lake  Kluane,  an  emerald-tinted  body  of 
water,  forty-five  miles  long,  with  a  setting  of  ma- 
jestic snow  peaks.  This  is  the  end  of  the  wagon 
trail,  and  from  this  point  we  follow  a  dwindling 
horse  trail  which  reaches  a  vanishing  point,  after 
which  we  make  our  own  trail  to  the  Inner  fastnesses 
of  the  mountains. 

At  Lake  Kluane  our  forces  were  augmented  by 
Jim  Baker,  one  of  our  guides,  a  quiet  genial  man  of 
about  forty-five  years,  whose  sole  vocation  in  life 
has  been  to  hunt  and  trap.  Coming  from  Tennes- 
see at  an  early  age,  his  younger  manhood  was  spent 
In  the  West  hunting  game  to  supply  meat  to  the  lum- 
ber and  mining  camps.  During  the  gold  stampede 
to  the  Yukon  he  came  north  with  the  mining  hordes, 
consistently  resisted  the  mining  fever,  and  continued 

41 


42        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

to  hunt  game  to  supply  the  miners  with  fresh  meat. 
Of  late  years  he  has  been  engaged  In  trapping  fur- 
bearing  animals  and  his  reputation  Is  that  of  a  man 
who  knows  game. 

Lake  Kluane  Is  forty-five  miles  long,  and  as  part 
of  our  horses  are  at  the  lower  end  of  the  lake  and 
the  greater  part  are  at  the  northern  end,  we  decided 
to  take  most  of  our  provisions  and  outfit  to  the 
upper  end  of  the  lake  by  two  twenty- foot  boats, 
while  some  of  us  rounded  up  the  horses  at  the  lower 
end  of  the  lake.  Accordingly  late  In  the  afternoon 
Jim  Baker  and  George  Wright,  with  Hoyt  and  Wol- 
cott,  started  for  the  lower  end  of  the  lake  and  suc- 
ceeded In  rounding  up  the  horses  preparatory  to  get- 
ting them  across  the  Slims  River,  a  glacial  stream 
half  a  mile  wide,  with  strong  current  and  full  of 
quicksands. 

There  is  a  skiff  on  either  side  of  the  river  and  one 
horse  was  tied  behind  the  skiff,  and  as  the  oarsmen 
TOW  across  the  rest  of  the  horses  are  driven  into  the 
water  behind  the  towed  horse;  and  as  they  usually 
follow  a  lead  horse,  the  crossing  was  successfully 
made  without  much  difficulty,  except  one  horse  was 
swept  down-stream  about  one  hundred  yards  and 
floundered  around  before  he  could  reach  solid  foot- 
ing on  the  bank;  after  reaching  which  the  party  pro- 
ceeded to  Jim  Baker's  cabin  for  the  night,  to  make 
an  early  start  up  the  lake  the  following  day. 

Dixon   the   guide,   with   Bettle   and   the   writer, 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        43 

started  out  with  one  of  the  boats,  leaving  Bruce  the 
cook,  with  Cutting,  to  come  along  with  the  second 
boat.  After  proceeding  about  ten  miles  we  struck 
a  heavy  squall  and  our  boat  being  heavily  loaded 
with  only  three  inches  of  gunwale  above  water  line, 
we  ran  before  the  wind  for  the  western  shore,  which 
we  reached  about  6.30.  After  unloading  our  sup- 
plies on  the  beach  and  erecting  tent,  one  of  us  lo- 
cated a  band  of  sheep  on  the  mountain,  four  miles 
from  camp,  and  feeding  at  an  altitude  of  about  five 
thousand  feet. 

We  studied  the  mountain  through  our  glasses  for 
a  few  minutes  and  decided  that  while  we  would  have 
to  stalk  them  almost  straight  up,  yet  with  good  luck 
and  the  protection  of  a  small  draw  we  would  have 
a  chance  of  getting  within  shooting  distance. 

Dixon  and  the  writer  started  up  a  canyon  with  a 
wild  stream  roaring  through  the  rocks,  and  after 
proceeding  a  couple  of  miles  it  became  evident  we 
must  climb  the  walls  and  get  up  on  the  mountain 
slope.  The  walls  were  as  nearly  perpendicular  as 
any  bit  of  natural  architecture  the  writer  had  ever 
assayed,  but  they  were  mostly  of  rock  with  little  soil 
to  make  uncertain  footing,  so  by  using  hands  and 
feet  we  clung  to  the  rocky  face,  sometimes  going 
up,  sometimes  making  our  way  carefully  across  the 
face  to  a  more  favorable  point  of  ascent,  and  finally 
reached  the  top  about  six  hundred  feet  up  the  moun- 
tain.    After  waiting  a  moment  to  get  a  new  supply 


44        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

of  breath,  we  hurried  through  the  timber  with  a 
very  poor  footing  of  moss,  through  which  we  would 
sink  every  step  into  the  watery  muck  beneath. 

Above  timber  line  we  stopped  to  take  a  look  at 
the  sheep,  which  turned  out  to  be  ewes,  and  as  they 
had  somewhat  shifted  their  position  we  traveled  up 
a  small  gulch  in  plain  sight  of  the  band.  Part  of 
the  time  we  bent  double  In  order  to  take  advantage 
of  the  screen  of  low  willows,  and  In  the  clear  places 
we  crawled  along  until  we  would  reach  another  wil- 
low patch.  In  this  slow  manner  we  came  to  the  base 
where  the  mountain  rises  abruptly  Into  the  clouds, 
and  from  which  point  we  were  hidden  from  the 
sheep,  which  as  last  seen  were  about  fifteen  hundred 
feet  above  us.  Now  began  the  stalk  up  the  tundra- 
covered  slope  where  our  feet  sank  Into  the  soft, 
matted  roots.  Dixon,  though  about  fifty  years  old, 
traveled  very  fast,  with  the  writer  straining  every 
aching  muscle  to  follow  his  rapid  pace.  The  tundra 
was  soon  left  behind  and  we  began  to  mount  up  the 
rock  slope. 

The  writer  was  breathing  like  a  steam-engine 
and  had  absolutely  reached  the  limits  of  his  efforts 
when  we  arrived  at  the  level  where  the  sheep  had 
last  been  seen,  and  could  go  no  farther  without  stop- 
ping to  rest,  as  heart  was  racing  painfully  and  leg 
muscles  cramped  under  the  strain  of  the  ascent;  yet 
there  was  no  time  to  rest  as  It  was  9.20  p.m.,  the 
sheep  had  stopped  feeding  and  were  going  to  the 


I.  VALLEY  OF  T«E'  DONJECK  RIVER. 

2.  THE  SHORE  OF  LAKE  KLUANE. 
3.  WRITER  UPON  TUNDRA  BARRENS. 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        45 

top  for  the  night,  and  the  mists  were  creeping  lower 
down  the  mountain.  As  only  a  few  minutes  of  light 
for  shooting  remained,  we  decided  Dixon  should  try- 
to  rush  up  to  within  shooting  distance. 

The  writer  sat  down  to  watch  the  guide  who, 
with  the  agility  of  a  goat,  made  marvelous  speed  up 
the  rock  slopes,  while  the  writer  wondered  if  his 
own  legs  and  wind  would  ever  permit  of  a  like  feat. 
About  one  thousand  feet  above  the  guide  paused  for 
a  shot,  the  flame  belched  from  the  gun,  but  there 
was  no  sound,  the  shot  had  missed  its  mark;  a  sec- 
ond flash  from  the  muzzle  and  out  of  the  misty  haze 
came  rolling  a  white  ball,  bounding  from  rock  to 
rock,  sliding  and  tumbling,  until  far  below  the  dead 
sheep  stopped  almost  at  timber  line.  After  par- 
tially dressing  the  sheep  to  reduce  the  superfluous 
weight  we  started  to  drag  it  down  to  camp,  and 
after  stumbling  about  in  the  darkness  in  the  thick 
timber  finally  reached  our  fire  on  the  beach  at  11.30 

P.M. 

I  confided  to  Dixon  that  I  had  named  that  par- 
ticular mountain  after  myself  to  commemorate  the 
occasion  of  my  first  sheep  hunt  in  the  Yukon,  on 
which  occasion  I  had  struggled  hard  but  had 
"  died.'*  Dixon  is  rather  consoling,  however,  as  he 
tells  me  that  since  my  wind  and  legs  are  not  accus- 
tomed to  lifting  one  hundred  and  seventy  pounds  up 
a  mountain,  I  did  surprisingly  well  to  "  die  "  so  far 
up  the  mountain,  and  if  the  light  had  permitted  a 


46        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

brief  breathing  space,  I  would  have  easily  made  the 
kill,  but  as  to  this  we  shall  see  later. 

August  IS'  Dixon  the  guide  and  myself,  an  ex- 
perienced hunter,  were  last  night  guilty  of  something 
that  would  almost  shame  a  tenderfoot.  After  hav- 
ing a  midnight  supper,  we  placed  both  of  our  rifles 
under  the  tarpaulin  covering  our  provision  pile  on 
the  beach,  and  then  took  the  sheep  up  to  our  tent 
one  hundred  yards  distant  in  the  timber,  and  leaving 
the  sheep  just  outside  we  rolled  into  our  robes.  In 
the  middle  of  the  night  we  were  awakened  by  heavy 
foot-falls  of  a  grizzly  just  outside  the  tent,  trying 
to  carry  off  our  sheep;  we  reached  for  our  rifles, 
only  to  remember  they  were  down  on  the  beach,  so 
instead  of  shooting  the  bear,  Dixon  yelled  at  him 
and  frightened  him  away  from  the  sheep. 

After  breakfast  we  loaded  the  boat  and  started  up 
the  lake,  but  the  wind  failed  us  and  we  had  to  row, 
which  was  very  slow  and  tedious  work.  At  noon 
we  went  ashore  and  cooked  many  pounds  of  most 
delicious  sheep  chops.  As  a  strong  head  wind  had 
sprung  up  we  decided  to  wait  until  Baker  and 
Wright  with  the  rest  of  the  party  should  come  along 
with  the  horses,  and  about  three  o'clock  they  came 
up  to  us.  We  immediately  hitched  a  three-hundred- 
foot  tow-line  to  two  of  the  horses,  and  thus  pro- 
ceeded until  1 1.30  at  night  we  saw  the  welcome  light 
in  Morley  Bones'  cabin  at  the  end  of  Kluane. 

Bones  had  been  engaged  by  Dixon  to  join  our 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        47 

expedition  as  one  of  the  guides,  so  we  looked  him 
over  with  some  considerable  interest,  as  we  met  in 
the  dim  candle-light.  When  I  first  met  him,  I  was 
tremendously  impressed  with  his  wonderful  crop  of 
hair,  which  was  at  least  ten  inches  long  and  gave  him 
the  appearance  of  a  human  chrysanthemum.  As  he 
came  in  the  cabin  I  naively  inquired,  "  Who  are 
you?"  to  which  he  replied:  "Bones,  merely 
Bones."  Among  the  first  white  men  to  penetrate 
into  this  remote  spot  in  the  Interior,  he  has  clung  to 
his  wilderness  home,  sometimes  engaging  in  panning 
gold,  sometimes  hunting  and  trapping,  but  always 
roaming  about  the  unexplored  corners  of  the  coun- 
try. He  is  an  earnest,  hard  worker,  not  given  to 
bombast,  an  excellent  guide  and  a  conservative,  and 
a  man  whose  reputation  for  square  dealing  Is  envi- 
able. 

Here  also  we  were  joined  by  another  guide,  Jack 
Hayden,  one  of  those  spontaneously  likeable  men, 
who  look  you  in  the  eye  and  tell  you  nothing  but  the 
truth  of  things.  Hayden  has  always  been  an  out- 
door man;  he  has  driven  stage  through  the  moun- 
tains of  Colorado,  been  a  cow-puncher  in  Texas, 
mushed  and  mucked  and  delved  on  the  Klondike. 
He  was  with  Mr.  Sheldon  in  the  Mt.  McKInley  dis- 
trict when  Sheldon  was  studying  and  making  ob- 
servations on  the  habits  and  ranges  of  mountain 
sheep.  A  number  of  years  ago  Hayden,  nearly 
down  and  out  and,  as  he  expresses  it,  "  with  twenty 


48        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

dollars  in  my  ragged  trousers,  a  gun,  a  smile,  and  a 
one-eyed  dog,"  came  to  Kluane  River,  where  he  be- 
gun to  hunt  and  trap.  The  trapping  was  profitable, 
and  now  he  has  a  comfortable  cabin  that  shelters  his 
native  wife  and  several  children  to  whom  he  is  de- 
voted and  of  whom  he  speaks  with  a  fine  spirit  of 
tender  and  genuine  affection. 

The  last  member  of  our  party  is  an  Indian  named 
Albert,  whom  Dixon  is  taking  along  as  a  handy  man, 
to  be  used  as  guide,  or  horse  wrangler,  or  helper  to 
the  cook  as  occasion  demands.  It  is  difficult  to  re- 
member that  Albert  is  an  Indian  as  his  short  stature, 
his  slant  eyes,  and  facial  contour  are  almost  identical 
with  the  Japanese.  He  is  the  son  of  a  chieftain,  and 
a  full  blood,  and  unquestionably  of  Asiatic  descent. 

August  14,  This  has  been  a  busy  day :  the  horses 
have  been  rounded  up  and  shod,  the  pack  saddles, 
riding  saddles,  blankets,  cinch  ropes,  and  hobbles 
alotted  to  each,  and  preparations  of  all  sorts  made 
for  the  start  to-morrow  morning.  It  has  taken 
much  time  to  unpack  our  boxes  and  bags  of  provi- 
sions and  distribute  them  in  canvas  panniers  for  side 
packs,  so  that  each  pannier  shall  balance  the  other 
in  weight  and  bulk,  but  at  last  it  is  finished.  Fisher 
is  busy  baking  many  loaves  of  bread  and  making 
sandwiches,  which  each  man  will  take  for  his  noon- 
day meal  to-morrow,  as  we  shall  be  crossing  the 
mountains  and  there  will  be  no  time  to  stop  and  no 
fuel  with  which  to  cook,  if  we  should  stop.     While 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        49 

the  cooking  and  baking  progresses  the  rest  of  us  are 
disposed  upon  boxes,  and  upon  Bones'  bunk,  or  on 
some  bear  skins  on  the  floor,  variously  engaged  in 
smoking,  greasing  our  boots,  writing  our  diary,  or 
talking  about  various  wild  animals  we  have  known. 
Bones  tells  a  remarkable  story  of  a  black  wolf  that 
has  been  following  him  about  for  a  number  of 
months,  and  which  howls  upon  his  trail  at  night,  and 
which  he  has  seen  within  one  hundred  yards  of  his 
camp  several  times.  Fisher  thinks  the  wolf  is  lonely 
and  is  simply  hanging  around  '*  for  company  sake  "; 
the  rest  of  us,  having  had  no  experience  with  sociable 
timber  wolves,  have  no  theories  to  advance  and  de- 
cide we  will  get  some  sleep. 

August  15.  It  was  nine-thirty  by  the  time  we  had 
all  the  horses  packed  with  their  loads,  and  to  the 
merry  tinkling  of  many  bells  Bones  led  the  way  up 
the  narrow  trail  leading  westward,  while  pack  ani- 
mals and  hunters  and  guides  on  saddle  horses  strung 
out  in  single  file  behind.  The  trail  led  through  the 
timber  for  nine  miles  until  we  came  to  the  broad  bot- 
tom land  covered  with  fine  grass,  through  which 
flows  the  Duke  River,  a  noisy,  glacial  stream,  which, 
though  rapid,  was  not  too  high  this  early  in  the  day 
to  make  crossing  diflicult.  The  bank  of  the  Duke 
rises  almost  straight  up  two  hundred  feet  to  a  bench, 
and  it  was  almost  unbelievable  that  pack  horses 
loaded  with  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  each  could 
make  the  top  on  such  a  steep  incline. 


so        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

We  rested  the  horses  for  a  few  minutes  and  then 
began  our  ascent  of  the  Burwash  Mountains,  wind- 
ing around  the  sides  of  the  mountains  through  the 
ever-dwindling  spruce  timber  which  we  left  behind 
at  noon,  and  came  out  upon  the  tundra-covered 
mountains,  where  we  stopped  to  give  the  horses  a 
rest  while  we  ate  sandwiches  and  kept  a  close  watch 
on  the  pack  animals  to  keep  them  from  lying  down 
and  rolling  with  their  burdens. 

A  whole  volume  might  be  written  upon  the  subject 
of  the  tundras  of  the  Yukon,  and  since  they  play  an 
important  part  in  retarding  exploration  and  travel 
in  this  surprising  land,  we  must  take  note  of  them. 
This  mountain  covering  of  tundra  is  innocent  enough 
to  look  at;  it  appears  to  be  simply  a  covering  of 
small,  brownish-green  bushes  about  twelve  inches 
high,  growing  so  closely  together  as  to  form  a  con- 
tinuous carpet,  but  when  the  traveler  comes  to  step 
on  the  carpet  he  finds  the  entire  mass  of  vegetation 
is  simply  floating  upon  a  bed  of  watery  mire  into 
which  he  sinks  above  his  ankles.  How  the  moisture 
comes  to  be  there  the  writer  does  not  know  and  has 
no  theory,  and  its  presence  is  too  persistent  a  fact 
to  encourage  much  theorizing,  as  the  tundra  with 
its  muck  and  mire  is  found  on  the  very  tops  of  the 
Burwash  Mountains  as  well  as  on  the  steep  slopes, 
where  according  to  all  rules  it  ought  to  be  drained 
off,  but  is  not. 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        51 

But  little  wonder  the  Indian  tribes  do  not  go  to 
the  game  ranges  across  this  range  of  hills,  as  they 
say  the  tundra  was  made  by  the  spirits  of  the  ani- 
mals that  live  in  the  St.  Elias  range  to  keep  the 
hunters  away  and  make  the  game  secure:  and  we 
agree  with  the  Indian.  Every  step  we  took  and 
every  step  our  horses  took,  both  man  and  beast  sank 
into  the  miry  mass,  making  it  difficult  enough  for 
man  but  most  difficult  for  the  heavily  laden  pack 
animals,  which  frequently  were  in  an  almost  hopeless 
state  bogged  down  above  the  knees.  On  the  way 
across  we  found  several  carcases  of  horses  belonging 
to  some  prospectors,  which,  unable  to  survive  the 
persistent  grip  of  the  mire,  had  fallen  exhausted  and 
perished  on  the  mountain. 

Its  continuity  seems  to  be  without  end,  for  no 
sooner  have  we  toiled  slowly  to  the  top  of  one  ridge, 
expecting  it  to  be  the  last,  than  another  somewhat 
higher  confronts  us,  to  ascend  which  we  travel  down 
the  one  we  have  climbed  with  such  effort  and  then 
mount  the  higher  ridge  ahead.  After  traveling  this 
way  for  hours  a  feeling  of  resentment  creeps  over 
one,  until  a  few  more  hours  fixes  the  conviction  that 
the  land  is  "  accurst."  On  either  side  lie  the  mighty 
snow  peaks,  searing  the  sky,  cold,  aloof  and  imper- 
sonal finalities,  while  between  in  unending  ridges 
rolls  the  colorless  tundra;  I  presume  it  is  really  a 
beautiful  picture  if  one  could  look  upon  it  without 


52        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

experiencing  it,  but  at  the  moment  of  writing  the 
perspective  is  too  close  to  permit  appreciation  of  any 
element  of  beauty. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  of  what  has  been  a  really 
staggering  day  we  passed  over  the  highest  ridge  of 
Burwash  Pass  and  approached  an  oasis  of  real  and 
solid  ground,  almost  surrounded  by  morass,  in  which 
a  pack  horse,  named  "  Snorty,"  completely  bogged 
and  fell  down;  but  by  working  on  him,  fore  and  aft, 
we  finally  landed  him  on  terra  firma,  where  we  went 
into  camp  for  the  night.  A  thick  patch  of  willows 
furnished  excellent  cover  for  large  flocks  of  Arctic 
ptarmigan,  but  Wolcott  and  Hoyt  with  .22  calibre 
rifles  killed  thirty-six  of  the  birds  in  a  very  brief 
time  for  supper.  There  is  no  grass  for  horse  feed 
anywhere  near  us,  but  these  Yukon  horses  have  be- 
come accustomed  to  eating  willows,  upon  which  they 
feed  like  a  moose,  so  we  have  hobbled  and  turned 
them  loose  in  the  willow  patch,  and  then  rolled  our 
weary  bodies  in  the  sleeping  robes,  thankful  for  the 
distance  we  had  covered  during  the  day  and  hopeful 
of  completing  the  crossing  on  the  morrow. 

August  16,  At  four  o'clock  we  were  up  and  pre- 
pared our  simple  toilet,  which  consisted  of  merely 
giving  ourselves  a  good  shake  and  adding  a  sweater 
to  our  already  clothed  backs,  for  it  was  freezing  cold, 
even  though  a  bright  and  cloudless  day.  After 
packing  the  horses  we  again  started  across  the 
tundra,   following  the  westward  course   of  Wade 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        53 

Creek,  flowing  out  of  a  small  lake  of  the  same  name 
near  by  our  camp.  We  picked  up  many  ptarmigan 
as  we  went  forward,  and  about  eleven  o'clock 
reached  timber  line  and  in  an  hour  descended  to  the 
valley  of  the  Donjeck  River,  where  horses  were  un- 
packed and  turned  out  for  two  hours  to  feed  upon 
the  pea  vine  called  "  Donjeck  "  by  the  Indians,  and 
which  grows  abundantly  in  the  four-mile-wide  bot- 
tom land. 

The  horses  prefer  this  pea  vine  to  grass,  and 
Bones  winters  his  horses  in  this  valley  with  no  other 
feed.  Though  hemmed  by  mountains  of  eternal 
snow,  rising  from  the  river  level,. these  horses  simply 
paw  down  through  the  white  blanket  and  thrive  on 
"  Donjeck  "  during  the  long  Arctic  winter. 

In  the  afternoon  we  made  a  fresh  start  for  ford- 
ing the  Donjeck  River,  a  glacial  stream  which  we 
found  to  be  high  by  reason  of  the  melting  of  the  ice 
above.  In  the  morning  these  glacial  streams  are 
low,  but  as  the  sun's  rays  linger  upon  the  ice  fields 
they  naturally  melt  and  the  rivers  rise  rapidly  until 
about  six  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  when  they  begin 
to  subside  until  the  next  day.  This  river  is  exceed- 
ingly swift  and  divided  into  many  channels,  all  of 
which  have  dangerous  quicksands.  After  crossing 
several  branches,  Dixon  led  the  way  into  another, 
but  his  horse  struck  quicksand  and  turned  back,  after 
which  we  found  a  safe  crossing.  The  pack  horses 
were  brought  to  a  crossing  we  had  already  tested, 


54        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

and  one  horse  was  led  across  with  his  tail  tied  to  the 
halter  of  a  second  horse  and  so  on,  until  we  had 
them  all  following  a  leader  safely  across  the  fords. 
We  now  turned  our  course  northward,  following 
the  river  along  the  gravel  bottom  land,  until  we 
came  to  Wolverine  Creek,  rushing  down  from  the 
westward  between  the  mountains.  Here  we  went 
into  camp  to  rest  the  horses  a  few  days,  while  we 
try  some  hunting  back  in  the  first  range  of  moun- 
tains. 


i^[g^yii^i^<^^^ 


ALONG  THE  WOLVERINE  RIVER  BOTTOMS. 
2.  FORDING  THE  DONJECK  RIVER. 


CHAPTER  V 

"  There  where  the  mighty  mountains  bare  their  fangs  unto 

the  moon, 
There  where  the  sullen  sun-dogs  glare  in  the  snow-bright 

bitter  moon, 
And  the  glacier-glutted  streams  sweep  down  at  the  clarion 

call  of  June." 

August  77.  Clear  and  cold  morning.  We  de- 
cided that  Hoyt  and  Wolcott  will  take  Jim  Baker 
and  go  down  the  Donjeck  looking  for  grizzlies, 
Cutting  and  Bettle  will  go  up  on  the  mountains  for 
sheep,  while  Hayden  and  the  writer  will  try  for 
caribou  on  the  barrens.  At  breakfast  Bones  inquired 
if  we  heard  the  wolf  howling  on  the  bar  last  night, 
and  tells  us  It  is  the  same  wolf  that  has  been  follow- 
ing him  around  for  a  number  of  months.  Jim  Baker 
looked  at  Bones  for  a  moment,  gazing  steadily  at 
his  "  hayrack  head  of  hair,"  and  without  a  suspicion 
of  a  smile  gravely  drawled,  "  Wal,  If  I  had  a  varmit 
trallln'  me  around  like  that  all  summer  It  strikes 
me  I  would  get  my  hair  cut  so  the  wolf  would  learn 
I  was  a  human  bein'  and  not  mistake  me  for  some 
other  varmit."  Every  one  exploded  except  Bones 
and  Baker,  the  latter  continuing  to  gaze  at  Bones  a 

55 


S6       CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

moment  and  then  indulging  in  a  smile  and  a  low 
chuckle. 

Saddling  our  horses  we  started  out  for  the  hunt- 
ing grounds,  going  up  the  canyon  of  Wolverine 
Creek  about  eight  miles  and  then  striking  to  the  left 
through  a  pass  in  the  mountains.  Arrived  at  the 
top  Dixon,  with  Cutting  and  Bettle,  continued  ahead 
while  the  writer  and  Hayden  branched  to  the  right 
across  the  caribou  barrens,  which  are  rolling  tundra- 
covered  mountains  about  two  thousand  five  hundred 
feet  high  and  above  timber  line.  .We  traveled  about 
twenty  miles,  stopping  on  the  summit  of  each  butte 
to  survey  the  country  around  us  through  our  power- 
ful binoculars,  and  though  the  country  was  barren 
of  timber  for  many  miles  we  saw  not  a  single  cari- 
bou, though  their  tracks  were  frequent. 

The  wind  blew  cold  from  the  glacial  fields  to  the 
westward;  we  saw  many  fresh  diggings,  where  griz- 
zlies had  been  searching  for  gophers,  but  our  hunt 
discovered  no  game  of  any  kind.  At  six  o'clock 
we  came  down  the  mountain  and  reached  camp  about 
ten  o'clock,  where  we  found  the  other  hunters  who 
had  come  in  earlier. 

Cutting  and  Bettle,  after  leaving  us  in  the  morn- 
ing, had  located  forty-five  sheep  near  the  top  of  a 
mountain  and  after  looking  over  the  country  with 
glasses  picked  out  a  course  by  which  they  might 
climb  above  the  band  to  within  shooting  distance. 
After  a  long  stalk  they  had  approached  within  a 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        57 

mile  of  their  quarry,  when  the  wind  shifted  as  wind 
has  the  disagreeable  habit  of  doing;  the  sheep  got 
the  scent  of  the  hunters,  and  they  were  obliged  to 
return  to  camp  for  the  day. 

Hoyt  and  Wolcott  with  Baker  went  down  the 
Donjeck  about  twelve  miles  looking  for  bears,  but 
while  they  saw  numerous  diggings  where  the  griz- 
zlies had  been  hunting  gophers  and  mice,  nothing 
in  the  bear  line  came  in  sight.  They  located  six 
caribou,  however,  on  a  bench,  but  on  using  the 
glasses  it  was  observed  that  the  heads  were  small, 
so  they  did  not  try  for  them.  We  have  berated 
Jim  and  his  hunters  rather  unmercifully  because  the 
camp  is  out  of  fresh  meat  and  yet  they  deliberately 
turned  back  from  a  meat  supply,  but  Dixon  told  them 
his  hunters  and  the  writer  would  bring  in  meat  sup- 
ply even  if  we  didn't  get  any  heads  worth  while,  so 
it  is  a  bit  far  fetched  to  blame  Baker  for  not  get- 
ting meat.  The  ham,  however,  had  an  unusually 
salty  taste  that  night. 

August  18.  We  decided  to  move  our  camp  far- 
ther into  the  mountains  on  the  head-waters  of  Wol- 
verine Creek,  and  to  hunt  across  the  caribou  bar- 
rens while  the  pack  train  follows  the  easier  course 
along  the  bottom  of  the  creek.  Arrived  at  the  point 
where  we  went  through  the  pass  on  yesterday's  fruit- 
less hunt,  Hoyt  and  the  writer  located  six  rams  on 
a  mountain  four  miles  up  the  creek  so  we  decided 
to  go  after  the  rams,  while  Wolcott,  Bettle,  and 


58        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

Cutting,  with  Baker  and  Dixon,  went  up  the  pass 
and  across  the  caribou  barrens. 

After  Hoyt  and  the  writer  had  gone  up  the  creek 
about  four  miles,  we  tied  our  horses  and  started 
through  the  timber  for  the  base  of  the  mountain 
where  we  had  located  the  rams.  After  consider- 
able work  we  came  out  on  a  knoll  to  take  a  look  at 
their  heads  before  beginning  our  stalk,  but  not  a 
ram  was  to  be  seen;  we  looked  over  every  foot  of 
the  mountain  for  an  hour,  and  then  concluded  the 
game  had  climbed  to  the  top  and  gone  over  the 
range  where  it  was  useless  to  follow.  There  was 
nothing  to  do  but  return  to  our  horses  in  the  creek 
bottom  where  the  pack  train  overtook  us,  and  we 
proceeded  up  through  the  canyon  and  camped  at  the 
last  timber  on  Wolverine  Creek. 

Our  other  hunters  had  very  much  better  luck,  for 
after  climbing  to  the  barrens  they  located  a  caribou 
four  miles  away  and  began  a  stalk  with  a  favoring 
wind.  The  caribou  was  lying  down  on  the  slope  of 
a  high  butte,  so  the  hunters  climbed  above  the  ani- 
mal and  then  sat  down  to  recover  their  breath  and 
steady  down  a  bit  before  shooting.  Wolcott 
opened  fire  and  missed  with  two  shots  at  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  yards.  The  caribou  started  to  run 
around  the  slope,  and  Cutting  took  him  behind  the 
shoulder  and  killed  with  a  single  shot.  We  after- 
wards discovered  Wolcott's  sight  was  one  six- 
teenth of  an  inch  off  center,  though  at  the  time  Wol- 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        59 

cott  was  feeling  very  low  by  reason  of  his  poor 
shooting. 

While  Cutting's  caribou  was  being  decapitated, 
Bettle  with  Baker  located  a  bull  about  a  mile  away, 
but  in  a  difficult  situation  for  a  shot.  They  stalked 
him  for  two  hours  and  finally  climbed  above  him, 
from  which  vantage  point  Bettle  put  him  out  with 
two  shots  In  the  neck.  Late  In  the  evening  the  two 
successful  hunters  walked  Into  camp,  their  horses 
loaded  with  a  supply  of  caribou  meat  besides  the  two 
heads.  Cutting's  trophy  is  rather  small  with  only 
thirty-two  points.  Bettle's  head  has  thirty-six 
points,  fifty-seven  and  one-half  Inches  length  of 
guard  horns,  and  thirty-eight  and  one-half  Inches 
spread  —  a  nice  medium  head. 

August  ig.  The  horse  feed  Is  very  scarce  about 
this  camp  and  the  willows  are  few  and  far  between, 
so  the  horses  have  rambled  off  during  the  night. 
We  decided  not  to  wait  for  the  horses  to  be  rounded 
up,  but  to  hunt  afoot.  Baker  and  Wolcott  went  up 
the  creek  to  the  forks  and  took  the  left  branch, 
traveling  In  the  canyon  up  to  the  glacier. 

They  saw  no  sheep  whatever  until  they  were 
nearly  up  to  the  Ice  fields;  In  fact,  at  this  time  of  the 
year  It  is  almost  useless  to  go  after  sheep  unless  you 
are  prepared  to  go  up  to  the  glaciers,  as  In  summer 
time  and  early  fall  they  feed  very  high  up  on  the 
mountains  on  a  round  leaf  grass  growing  near  the 
glacial  fields.     Coming  up  to  the  Ice  fields  they  saw 


6o        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

on  the  mountain  on  either  side  of  the  canyon  over 
five  hundred  sheep,  which  the  glasses  showed  to  be 
ewes  and  lambs,  but  they  finally  located  a  small 
bunch  of  rams  upon  the  pinnacles.  After  stalking 
nearer  and  looking  them  over  carefully  with  the 
glasses,  they  decided  not  to  shoot  as  the  heads  were 
too  small,  and  the  true  sportsman  dislikes  to  kill  un- 
less for  food  or  to  obtain  what  appears  to  be  a  fine 
head;  so  they  merely  sat  down  and  watched  the  beau- 
tiful animals  feeding  on  the  mountains  and  resting 
among  the  crags  until  it  was  time  to  start  for  camp, 
where  they  arrived  at  nine  o'clock,  having  traveled 
twenty-five  miles  over  rocky  creek  bottoms  most  of 
the  distance. 

Hoyt  and  the  writer,  with  Dixon,  the  guide, 
started  up  the  canyon  and  six  miles  up  at  the  forks 
crossed  the  Wolverine  on  the  rocks  at  low  water 
and  climbed  out  of  the  canyon  to  a  bench  several 
hundred  feet  above.  When  you  hunt  the  Osborni 
caribou  you  do  not  wander  aimlessly  around  look- 
ing for  game,  but  you  start  out  deliberately  and  se- 
lect the  highest  barren  mountain  top  from  which 
vantage  point  you  can  see  all  the  game  within  pos- 
sible stalking  distance.  You  may  locate  a  number 
of  herds  on  the  way  up,  but  you  do  not  permit  your- 
self to  be  diverted  from  the  toilsome  pleasure  of 
climbing  that  highest  peak. 

This  would  seem  like  a  great  waste  of  time  and 
energy  to  climb  to  such  a  height  and  after  you  have 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        6i 

arrived  immediately  start  to  descend  in  order  to 
stalk  the  game,  but  undoubtedly  it  is  the  correct 
method,  for  the  reason  that  when  you  have  reached 
the  high  peak  you  can  look  at  every  herd  of  caribou 
within  ten  miles  and  you  look  over  each  herd 
through  the  glasses  and  determine  which  has  the 
best-looking  heads.  Then  you  take  note  of  the  to- 
pography of  the  country  between  yourself  and  the 
quarry  and  determine  the  method  of  your  stalk, 
whether  you  will  try  to  get  above,  behind,  or  to  one 
side  of  them,  all  depending  upon  direction  of  wind 
and  natural  cover. 

We  decided  upon  a  peak  several  miles  distant, 
rising  about  four  thousand  feet;  it  looked  like  a 
large  mountain  and  quite  an  undertaking  to  ascend 
merely  to  have  a  look  at  the  country,  but  we  went  up 
the  tundra-covered  slope  and  finally  reached  the  top ; 
my  5x7  camera  seemed  to  weigh  a  ton.  On  the 
way  up  we  saw  a  cow  and  a  calf  caribou  below  us 
and  from  the  crest  we  located  a  herd  of  seventy  on 
the  sky  line  about  twelve  miles  away.  The  glasses 
showed  a  number  of  small  bulls  In  the  band  and  two 
good-sized  bulls,  but  we  decided  the  wind  was  wrong 
and  the  distance  too  great  for  a  stalk,  so  turned  our 
attention  to  another  herd  about  three  miles  away, 
feeding  on  the  slough  grass  near  the  foot  of  the  gla- 
cier. The  glass  showed  these  all  to  be  cows,  so  we 
looked  over  several  other  herds  that  had  nothing 
promising. 


62        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

At  last  we  spotted  six  bulls  about  five  miles  away, 
high  up  on  a  mountain,  feeding  just  below  the  snow 
line.  From  our  vantage  point  the  heads  looked  in- 
teresting, so  we  decided  to  try  for  them.  Two 
good-size  mountains  lay  between  us  and  the  game, 
which  had  to  be  crossed  over  before  we  could  begin 
our  stalk,  so  we  came  down  our  lookout  mountain 
and  at  the  bottom  found  a  few  dried  willows  to  make 
a  fire  to  boil  our  water  for  tea.  Lunch  finished,  we 
started  up  our  second  mountain  and  on  the  top  lay 
down  to  rest  and  look  at  the  game.  As  we  were 
looking  at  them,  they  suddenly  started  as  if  they  had 
been  frightened,  and  traveling  at  rapid  pace  the 
whole  band  rushed  around  the  brow  of  the  mountain 
and  came  down  the  slop-e  to  drink,  after  which  they 
began  to  browse  on  some  near-by  willows. 

We  hurried  down  the  mountain,  climbed  up  a 
canyon-,  and  ascended  until  we  were  somewhat  above 
them,  but  we  could  not  see  by  reason  of  the  willows. 
Again  we  descended  for  a  stalk  on  their  level  with 
the  wind  in  our  favor,  and  stalked  as  close  as  one 
hundred  and  fifty  yards.  The  heads  we  decided 
were  not  quite  big  enough  so  we  decided  not  to  shoot 
at  them,  but  crept  through  the  willows  within  a  hun- 
dred yards.  It  was  not  particularly  disappointing 
not  to  shoot  these  animals,  though  we  had  worked 
hard  for  a  head  this  day,  but  it  was  satisfying  merely 
to  sit  and  watch  these  noble  wild  things  with  their 
grayish  black  coats  and  white  collars  and  manes  and 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        63 

wonderfully  graceful  horns,  as  they  quietly  browsed 
on  willows,  with  their  own  snowy  peaks  keeping  si- 
lent watch  above. 

We  continued  to  watch  the  animals  longer  than 
the  waning  light  and  our  distance  from  camp  really 
allowed,  and  then  we  decided  to  do  some  experi- 
menting by  shooting  to  the  right  and  the  left  to  see 
if  they  would  easily  frighten.  In  all  we  shot  six 
times,  each  shot  would  cause  the  animals  to  look  up 
a  moment  and  then  continue  their  feeding;  they 
could  not  see  us  and  the  wind  was  in  our  favor,  but 
it  was  evident  mere  noise  such  as  the  roar  of  a 
Mauser  did  not  greatly  stimulate  their  interest. 
When  we  stood  forth,  however,  from  our  cover,  the 
band  looked  at  us  for  a  moment  then  dashed  full 
speed  up  the  mountain,  and  we  regretfully  started 
for  camp. 

Coming  down  the  mountain,  Hoyt  and  the  writer 
compared  notes  on  the  day's  work  and  we  discov- 
ered ourselves  to  be  decidedly  cheerful  for  hunters 
who  have  climbed  hard  all  day  and  are  coming  back 
to  camp  without  taking  a  shot  at  any  game. 

The  novice  will  not  understand  the  real  joy  which 
the  sportsman  experiences  In  merely  watching  and 
studying  wild  life  In  its  wild  and  beautiful  environ- 
ment, but  the  true  sportsman  loves  the  beautiful  wild 
life  and  really  takes  no  delight  In  mere  killing,  for 
the  true  sportsman  kills  but  little  game  and  then  only 
for  food  or  to  secure  a  particularly  fine  trophy;  even 


64        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

then  he  kills  with  a  feeling  of  regret.  To-night 
about  the  camp  fire  we  both  feel  particularly  happy 
to  have  studied  these  noble  animals  at  close  range, 
for  we  love  these  graceful  and  harmless  creatures  of 
the  wild  and  It  is  good  to  think  that  they  are  resting 
up  near  the  snow  line  Instead  of  stretched  out  cold 
and  stiff  on  the  tundra. 

On  reaching  the  canyon  we  had  to  cross  the 
Wolverine,  which  had  been  a  dry  crossing  on  rocks 
in  the  morning,  but  now  the  glacial  melting  had 
raised  the  stream  to  a  considerable  depth,  so  we 
plunged  Into  the  Ice  water  above  the  knees  and  made 
our  way  In  the  gloom  to  our  camp,  having  traveled 
over  thirty  miles,  climbed  over  ten  thousand  feet, 
soaked  to  the  hide  with  icy  glacial  water,  very  tired, 
ravenously  hungry,  an  empty  game  bag  —  but  still 
content. 

August  20.  A  heavy  downpour  greeted  us  this 
morning  as  we  responded  to  the  early  "  muck-a- 
muck "  call,  and  the  rain  has  continued  all  day. 
Wolverine  Creek  is  on  a  rampage;  the  heavy 
bowlders  rolling  In  the  stream  make  a  noise  even 
above  the  roar  of  the  tawny  waters.  Hunting  Is 
out  of  the  question,  as  we  cannot  cross  the  creek, 
so  we  are  all  sticking  close  to  the  tent,  trying  to  keep 
dry  and  comparing  notes  on  hunting  methods. 
Dixon  says  Bettle  and  Wolcott  tried  to  teach  him  a 
new  method  of  wading  glacial  streams;  that  he  has 
tried  their  way,  which  consists  of  removing  boots 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        65 

and  SOX  and  crossing  in  bare  feet,  but  that  he  would 
rather  have  wet  boots  than  have  his  feet  torn  and 
cut  on  sharp  bowlders  in  the  bottom  of  the  stream. 
The  writer  claims  that  there  is  much  reason  why  a 
man  who  carries  a  five-pound  camera  when  moun- 
tain climbing  should  be  entitled  to  six  pounds  of 
caribou  meat  for  supper;  the  others  are  a  bit  doubt- 
ful of  the  correctness  of  the  conclusion,  but  we 
demonstrated  that  by  carrying  the  camera  up  ten 
thousand  feet  yesterday  we  performed  the  equiva- 
lent of  lifting  a  ton  twenty-five  feet,  and  it  Is  agreed 
that  hereafter  the  writer  may  have  a  whole  caribou 
for  his  evening  meal. 

In  the  afternoon  Wright  went  out  to  look  for  the 
horses  and  found  two  have  entirely  "  jumped  the 
range  "  and  are  probably  twenty-five  miles  back  on 
the  Donjeck  bottom,  feeding  on  pea  vine.  Ac- 
cordingly Wright  has  taken  a  three  days'  grub 
supply  and  started  on  the  back  trail  for  a  horse 
hunt. 

We  have  held  a  council  and  decided  to  move 
camp  to-morrow  to  a  point  farther  into  the  range. 
We  will  split  the  hunting  party,  Cutting  going  one 
way  with  Hayden,  Bettle  and  Wolcott  with  Dixon 
taking  a  different  course,  Hoyt  and  the  writer  with 
Baker  following  a  middle  course,  while  Fisher  with 
Bones  and  the  Indian  will  bring  along  the  pack  train. 
We  are  all  to  meet  at  night  at  a  camping  place  which 
only  Dixon  knows,  but  which  is  described  as  being 


66        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

"  above  timber  on  Bull  Creek  at  the  first  horse 
feed/' 

August  21,  After  Wolcott  and  Bettle  had 
started  with  Dixon  on  foot,  Cutting,  Hoyt,  and  the 
writer,  with  Hayden  and  Baker  on  horses,  went  up 
the  canyon  about  ttn  miles  where  we  tried  to  ford 
the  Wolverine,  still  at  flood,  with  rolling  bowlders 
making  dangerous  crossing.  After  several  at- 
tempts we  made  a  successful  ford  and  stopped  at 
the  last  willow  patch  to  make  tea  at  noon.  Cutting 
and  Hayden  branched  off  to  the  mountains  on  our 
right  while  we  continued  up  the  canyon,  which  be- 
came narrower  and  more  rocky  as  we  advanced,  with 
frequent  pieces  of  glacial  ice  five  feet  thick  and  about 
twenty  yards  long  grounded  in  the  gorge.  Ahead 
of  us  a  number  of  miles  we  located  a  single  ram  on 
the  very  top  of  a  high  peak  that  rises  above  the  pass 
we  intended  crossing.  With  the  glasses  we  made 
him  out  to  be  a  very  large  ram,  but  his  back  was 
towards  us  and,  while  his  horns  were  immense  at  the 
base,  we  could  not  look  over  the  points  to  determine 
their  condition,  but  made  up  our  minds  to  attempt 
a  stalk  from  the  pass. 

Arrived  at  the  summit,  we  left  the  horses  teth- 
ered to  the  tundra  and  began  our  stalk,  which  did 
not  seem  promising,  as  the  ram  was  evidently  a 
lonely  old  sage  and  had  selected  his  vantage  point 
so  he  could  see  us  every  way  we  might  attempt  the 
ascent,  unless  we  tried  to  get  at  him  from  the  rear, 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        67 

and  as  the  wind  was  blowing  directly  from  us  toward 
him  it  looked  like  a  futile  effort;  but  we  chose  the 
stalk  from  the  rear  and  began  a  very  difficult  and 
steep  climb.  Very  gingerly  we  crept  along  among 
the  loose  rock,  avoiding  the  slightest  sound  and,  top- 
ping pinnacle,  stood  up  to  look  for  the  ram.  There 
stood  the  ancient  sheep  twenty  feet  away,  apparently 
paralyzed  with  surprise ;  I  nodded  to  my  companion 
to  shoot,  if  he  so  desired,  and  one  shot  from  Hoyt's 
Mauser  finished  this  particular  hunt. 

Both  horns  were  broken  off  in  front  at  a  point 
where  the  horn  is  six  inches  in  circumference,  and 
the  broken  ends  were  "  broomed "  and  frayed, 
showing  considerable  use  since  the  horns  were 
broken;  but  In  spite  of  the  Imperfections,  or  rather 
by  reason  of  them,  this  Is  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing heads  I  have  ever  seen.  The  horns  around  the 
base  measured  sixteen  inches,  the  annular  rings  on 
the  horn  which  remains  show  ten  years  of  age,  and 
the  part  broken  off  would  show  at  least  two  more 
annular  rings;  while  very  highly  crystallized,  the 
texture  was  further  Indicative  of  extreme  age.  The 
face  was  quite  as  Interesting  to  the  student  of  sheep, 
as  the  scalp  was  scarred  from  a  point  just  below  the 
horn  all  the  way  down  the  face  and  almost  to  the  tip 
of  the  nose ;  only  about  half  of  his  face  was  covered 
with  hair,  the  rest  being  hairless  and  Irregular  scars 
where  the  scalp  had  been  torn  in  the  long  past  and 
had  then  healed. 


68        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

Looking  at  this  aged  ram  with  his  broken  horns 
and  battered,  battle-marked  face,  it  took  but  little 
imagining  to  picture  him  battling  with  his  rivals 
among  the  crags  that  rip  the  sky,  gamely  taking 
heavy  punishment  and  giving  back  even  heavier 
blows,  slowly  but  surely  forcing  his  adversary  over 
the  precipice,  tumbling  to  a  quick  death  on  the  rocks 
below.  Undoubtedly  the  battered  face  and  the 
broken  horns  were  the  honor  marks  of  battle  royal, 
though  the  broken  horns  doubtless  antedated  the 
scars  on  the  face,  which  were  probably  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  loss  of  part  of  the  horns  prevented 
the  old  warrior  from  protecting  his  face. 

These  rams  are  by  no  means  as  peaceful  as  they 
might  appear,  for  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year  they 
engage  in  battle  just  as  the  moose  and  the  caribou, 
and  when  two  fight  the  others  stand  aside  and  im- 
partially judge  the  contest.  They  do  not  slash  and 
paw,  but  stand  off  ten  or  twelve  feet,  facing  each 
other,  then  with  lowered  heads  dash  directly  at  each 
other,  coming  together  with  a  crack  that  sounds  like 
a  shot  from  a  large  caliber  rifle.  Then  they  try  to 
push  each  other  off  the  mountain,  and,  not  succeed- 
ing, they  both  back  away  and  dash  headlong  at  each 
other,  until  one  is  either  dead  or  decides  discretion 
to  be  the  better  part  of  valor,  and  leaves  the  range. 

The  writer  has  talked  with  well-informed  people 
who  have  the  idea  that  broomed  and  broken  sheep- 
and  goat-horns  are  due  to  the  fact,  as  they  have 


1.  cLi^iuiXv,  THE  HEIGHTS  FOR  THE  ANCIENT  RAM. 

2.  CARIBOU  COUNTRY  HIGH  UP  NEAR  THE  GLACIER. 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        69 

heard,  that  sheep  and  goats  leap  or  jump  great  dis- 
tances and  land,  not  on  their  feet,  but  on  their  horns. 
Permit  the  writer  to  say  to  any  such  reader  that  no 
more  untrue  or  ridiculous  story  than  this  concerning 
the  habits  of  game  has  been  told,  since  the  ancient 
days  when  the  German  chieftains  told  the  credulous 
Caesar  of  hunting  the  unicorn  by  hiding  behind  a 
tree  and  inducing  the  horned  beast  to  rush  at  the 
tree  that  protected  them  and,  driving  his  horn  deep 
into  the  trunk,  thus  render  himself  helpless. 

After  studying  this  patriarch  of  the  sheep  family 
for  some  time,  we  rolled  him  down  the  mountain 
and  dressed  him,  taking  the  meat  and  packing  it  on 
our  horses.  From  the  summit  of  the  pass  we  saw 
the  beginning  of  a  creek  which  we  decided  must  be 
Bull  Creek,  as  it  was  the  only  one  visible  in  the  maze 
of  mountains.  Accordingly  our  course  lay  along 
the  stream,  and  three  miles  down  a  willow  patch 
with  some  small  grass  growing  on  a  bench  seemed 
to  answer  Dixon's  vague  description  of  our  camping 
ground.  We  had  hardly  unsaddled  our  animals, 
when  Albert  the  Indian  appeared  and  told  us  he  had 
left  the  pack  train  several  hours  before  to  tell  us 
the  animals  were  having  a  hard  time  on  the  moun- 
tains and  probably  would  not  get  across  that  night. 

Our  tents  and  sleeping  robes,  with  frying  pan  and 
grub,  were  back  with  the  pack  train  somewhere  on 
the  mountains,  but  our  inventory  of  immediate  as- 
sets disclosed  a  small  tea  pail,  some  tea,  and  our 


70        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

supply  of  fresh  sheep  meat;  so  we  collected  dried 
willows,  made  our  fire,  and  roasted  sheep  meat  on 
sticks.  Albert  began  to  tell  us  the  troubles  of  the 
pack  train  to  which  he  had  been  attached  earlier  in 
the  day.  It  seems  a  fording  was  tried  at  several 
places,  but  the  Wolverine  was  too  high;  finally  a 
swift  but  reasonably  safe  ford  was  found  and  the 
horses  all  driven  across  except  old  Snorty,  who  per- 
versely insisted  on  crossing  about  ten  feet  higher  up. 
What  happened  is  best  told  in  Albert's  laconic  de- 
scription :  "  One  time  I  see  him,  then  no  see  him, 
two  time  I  see  him,  then  no  more  see  him,  old 
Snorty.''  We  examined  Albert  at  some  length  be- 
fore the  real  story  came  out;  when  Snorty,  with  one 
hundred  pounds  of  flour  in  each  pannier  for  side 
packs  and  a  large  top  pack,  we^it  into  the  creek,  he 
was  struck  by  the  torrent  which  rolled  him  under, 
and  he  came  up  forty  feet  down-stream,  minus  one 
hundred  pounds  of  flour  and  the  top  pack,  with  the 
second  one  hundred  pounds  of  flour  still  fastened 
to  him ;  almost  immediately  he  went  under  again  and 
finally  came  up,  barren  of  any  pack,  and  climbed  the 
bank  none  the  worse  for  his  experience.  Albert 
found  one  pack  of  one  hundred  pounds  of  flour  some 
distance  down-stream  and  salvaged  it,  but  the  rest 
of  the  stuff  could  not  be  found. 

We  sat  around  in  the  firelight  and  speculated  not 
a  little  as  to  the  contents  of  that  top  pack,  whether 
it  contained  ammunition,  camera,  films,  or  sleeping 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        71 

robe.  About  ten  o'clock  the  sound  of  the  belb  on 
the  pack  train  came  to  us,  and  shortly  Bones  and 
Fisher  with  the  animals  came  to  our  modest  willow 
fire.  Bones  relieved  our  anxiety  by  telling  us  the 
lost  top  pack  contained  Jack  Hayden's  sleeping  robe. 
At  11.30  P.M.  Bettle,  Wolcott,  and  Dixon  stum- 
bled out  of  the  darkness  to  our  fire,  very  hungry  and 
looking  somewhat  *'  gone."  Leaving  our  Wolver- 
ine camp  they  had  gone  up  the  canyon,  taking  the 
left  branch  to  the  glacier,  fording  the  creek  a  num- 
ber of  times,  and  becoming  very  wet  and  chilled  in 
the  process.  They  dried  out  at  noon  and  Wolcott 
located  a  caribou  bull  with  nice  head,  which  he  killed 
at  two  hundred  and  fifty  yards.  When  the  head 
had  been  skinned  out,  the  three  went  up  Martindale 
Glacier  and  stalked  a  band  of  fourteen  rams,  one  of 
which  Bettle  shot  and  supposed  he  had  killed  as  the 
same  lay  quiet.  However,  the  ram  was  only 
creased  across  the  neck  by  the  bullet  and  soon  re- 
vived. Wolcott  called  to  Bettle  that  the  ram  was 
getting  on  his  feet,  and  Bettle  acted  promptly,  even 
if  strangely,  for  he  seemed  to  forget  he  had  a  rifle 
to  use  on  game  and  only  to  remember  that  at  a  not 
distant  date  he  had  played  on  the  Harvard  Varsity 
in  a  Yale  game.  Like  a  flash  he  made  a  flying 
tackle  at  the  ram,  took  the  animal  off  his  feet,  and 
with  arms  around  him  in  a  never-say-die  grip  both 
hunter  and  hunted  rolled  into  a  creek,  where  the  ram 
pawed  and  fought  while  the  hunter  held  on,  and 


72        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

gradually  forced  the  ram's  nose  under  water  until 
he  was  drowned.  Dixon  and  Wolcott  looked  on 
with  amazed  interest  at  the  contest,  uncertain 
whether  to  place  their  bets  on  the  man  or  beast,  as 
the  chances  seemed  about  even.  They  agree,  how- 
ever, that  the  best  man  won,  and  volunteer  to  referee 
any  future  fight  between  any  member  of  the  party 
and  a  moose,  caribou,  or  grizzly. 

Cutting  and  Hayden  have  not  come  in,  so  we 
conclude  they  have  "  missed  the  party  "  and  are  "  si- 
washing  it ''  out  on  the  mountains  without  supper  or 
blankets. 

August  22,  Cutting  and  Hayden  came  into  camp 
about  7  A.M.,  somewhat  hungry  as  they  had  no  grub 
for  supper.  After  leaving  us  down  in  the  Wolver- 
ine Canyon  they  had  climbed  the  mountains  and 
gone  after  a  herd  of  twenty  caribou,  but  the  game 
was  on  the  move  and  the  hunters  failed  to  get  any- 
where near.  Late  in  the  afternoon  they  began  to 
look  about  for  the  rendezvous  and  traveled  a  long 
'distance  over  mountains  covered  with  marshy  tundra 
before  reaching  Bull  Creek.  As  darkness  was  com- 
ing on  and  the  footing  was  difficult  in  the  creek  bot- 
tom, they  stopped  for  the  night  at  the  last  timber 
about  two  miles  below  us  and  using  the  horse 
blankets  for  bedding  rolled  up  for  the  night  under 
the  trees. 

Wolcott  and  Cutting  confessed  to  an  "  all  in  " 
feeling  and  remained  in  camp  to-day.     Bettle  went 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        73 

with  Dixon  to  look  for  sheep  up  near  the  glacier 
where  Bettle  fought  the  ram  and  drowned  him. 
They  have  climbed  hard  all  day  and  located  many 
ewes  and  lambs,  but  not  a  single  ram.  At  this  time 
of  year  it  is  very  rare  to  find  any  rams  with  a  band 
of  ewe  sheep;  occasionally  an  old  solitary  ram  is 
found  in  splendid  isolation  with  no  companions,  but 
almost  invariably  the  rams  are  found  in  small  bands 
of  five  to  fifteen  in  number,  and  in  such  bands  the 
members  will  usually  be  found  to  be  the  same  age. 
Almost  never  are  young  rams  three  or  four  years 
old  found  in  company  with  seven-  or  eight-year-old 
rams,  but  each  keeps  in  its  own  set. 

While  scanning  the  snowy  sky  line  two  miles  op- 
posite our  camp  in  hope  of  locating  some  rams,  we 
descried  a  bull  caribou  lying  down  on  the  slope 
within  a  hundred  feet  of  the  very  top  of  the  moun- 
tain, and  a  half  mile  to  the  left,  standing  in  the  snow 
on  a  knife-blade  pinnacle,  were  two  caribou.  It  is 
difficult  to  tell  why  these  Osborni  caribou  are  so 
often  found  on  the  very  pinnacles  of  the  peaks,  as 
it  is  quite  cool  enough  lower  down  on  the  tundra 
mountains  and  certainly  they  do  not  go  to  such  ex- 
treme heights  to  escape  the  flies  and  winged  pests, 
because  the  flies  and  mosquitoes  have  been  gone  for 
some  days.  The  guides  do  not  know  why  the  cari- 
bou are  frequently  seen  on  the  high  peaks,  but  they 
report  that  it  is  not^at  all  uncommon. 

Hoyt  and  the  writer  with  Baker  started  out  to 


74        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

climb  the  mountain  where  the  caribou  was  resting 
and  to  look  for  sheep  among  the  peaks  beyond. 
During  the  climb,  the  caribou  got  our  wind  and  fled 
across  the  range;  an  eagle  perched  on  a  rock  three 
hundred  feet  above  us  looked  down  with  a  superior 
stare  but  without  fear,  as  he  continued  a  spectator 
of  our  slow  climbing  until  we  reached  the  jagged 
pinnacles  of  rock  and  started  down  the  other  side. 
We  met  a  small  bull  caribou,  which  circled  around 
us  within  seventy-five  yards,  apparently  actuated  by 
a  friendly  Interest;  for  some  time  he  kept  up  his 
circling  tactics,  trying  evidently  to  get  our  wind,  but 
the  breeze  was  from  him  to  us,  and,  as  we  did  not 
look  dangerous  to  him,  the  graceful  creature  con- 
tinued to  follow  us  around.  After  the  caribou  had 
been  trailing  us  around  for  half  an  hour.  Baker  said: 
"  Looks  to  me  like  that  varmit  thinks  I  might  be 
his  grandmother  and  Is  going  to  hang  around  until 
he  is  certain."  We  told  Baker,  "  If  you  are  a  dead 
ringer  for  that  caribou's  grandmother,  then  the  old 
lady  certainly  could  not  enter  in  a  beauty  contest." 
Half  way  down  the  slope  the  caribou  had  circled 
behind  us,  where  he  got  our  wind;  throwing  his  head 
up  in  the  air  with  nostrils  quivering  he  stood  for  a 
moment,  then  like  a  shot  dashed  away  down  the 
mountain. 

Having  gotten  rid  of  the  distracting  caribou,  we 
turned  our  attention  to  the  sheep  hunting,  and  lo- 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        75 

cated  forty  ewes  and  lambs  high  up  on  another 
mountain,  which  we  climbed  in  order  to  see  the  other 
side,  which  turned  out  to  be  dotted  with  ewes  and 
lambs  and  nothing  else.  After  looking  over  all  the 
peaks  within  stalking  distance  and  seeing  not  a  single 
ram,  we  decided  to  descend  through  the  timber  and 
look  for  moose  until  we  should  reach  the  St.  Clair 
River,  where  we  would  look  out  for  bear.  In  going 
through  the  timber  we  saw  a  cow  moose,  which  we 
did  not  molest,  but  continued  on  and  finally  climbed 
a  butte  at  the  edge  of  the  St.  Clair  bottoms.  While 
eating  lunch  we  searched  the  gravel  bottom  for  bear, 
but  our  only  reward  was  to  pick  up  a  large  porcupine 
through  the  glasses. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  we  started  back  to  camp, 
traveling  along  the  St.  Clair  bottoms  and  then  cut- 
ting across  the  soggy  tundra  to  Bull  Creek.  The 
daylight  does  not  linger  nearly  as  long  as  when  we 
began  our  trip  and  darkness  found  us  still  several 
miles  from  camp,  with  sore  feet  from  stumbhng 
about  on  the  difficult  footing  of  the  bowlder-strewn 
creek,  but  we  felt  our  way  slowly  and  finally  dragged 
ourselves  to  the  camp  fire  after  doing  twenty-five 
miles  since  breakfast.  George  Wright  has  come  in 
from  his  horse  hunt,  having  located  the  two  strays 
back  on  the  Donjeck  River.  On  the  way  up 
Wolverine  Creek,  Wright  found  Jack  Hayden's 
bedding  and  the  other  pannier  with  one  hundred 


76        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

pounds  of  flour,  that  had  been  shaken  off  old  Snorty 
when  he  was  rolling  around  on  the  bottom  of  the 
creek ;  Hayden  is  happy  to  have  his  bedding,  and  the 
one  hundred  pounds  of  flour  looks  very  good  to  us 
in  spite  of  its  water  journey. 


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CHAPTER  VI 

**  But  the  stars  throng  out  in  their  glory, 
And  they  sing  of  the  God  in  man  ; 
They  sing  of  the  Mighty  Master, 
Of  the  loom  his  fingers  span, 
Where  a  star  or  a  soul  is  a  part  of  the  whole 
And  weft  in  the  wondrous  plan." 

August  2j.  Clear,  cold  weather.  Hoyt  and  the 
writer  plan  to  take  Baker  as  guide  and  George 
Wright  to  look  after  the  horses  and  to  make  a  five 
days'  trip  up  the  Klutlan  Glacier,  going  by  horse- 
back down  Bull  Creek,  across  the  St.  Clair,  then  over 
the  mountains  to  Count  Creek,  thence  down  Count 
Creek  to  the  Generc  River,  and  up  the  Generc  to  its 
source  in  Klutlan  Glacier. 

In  addition  to  our  saddle  horses  we  took  one 
pack  animal  loaded  with  our  bedding,  tea  pail,  fry- 
ing pan,  and  axe,  besides  a  simple  grub  supply  of 
tea,  sugar,  raisins,  flour,  and  grease  for  baking  and 
cooking,  and  started  down  Bull  Creek  to  the  St. 
Clair,  where  we  stopped  for  lunch.  Baker  had 
never  crossed  the  mountains  between  St.  Clair  and 
Count  Creek,  but  Jack  Hayden  told  us  not  to  at- 
tempt the  low  pass  as  it  was  a  tundra  morass  so  soft 
that  we  could  never  get  the  horses  across.     Hay- 

77 


78        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

den  impressed  upon  us  that  the  only  way  to  get 
across  was  to  choose  the  high  ridge  to  the  right  of 
the  pass  and  take  the  horses  right  up  to  the  rock 
pinnacles.  We  looked  over  the  monstrous  course 
Hayden  had  impressed  upon  us,  and  while  it  seemed 
absolutely  impossible  for  horses  we  decided  to  fol- 
low Hayden's  directions,  which  we  were  more  will- 
ing to  do  after  a  band  of  six  rams  was  located  on 
one  of  the  pinnacles.  Going  through  the  timber  we 
saw  a  cow  moose  which  we  did  not  disturb,  but  con- 
tinued up  the  high  ridge  where  the  going  was  slow. 

Reaching  the  top  of  the  ridge  we  came  to  the 
real  base  of  the  range,  from  which  the  peaks  shot 
up  thousands  of  feet  into  the  clouds.  It  seemed  a 
foolhardy  undertaking  to  attempt  to  scale  those 
towering  heights  with  horses,  but  we  would  lead  the 
horses  up  a  hundred  feet  at  a  time  and  give  them 
a  rest  and  then  proceed  upward.  When  we  reached 
the  top  of  a  peak  we  would  look  ahead  and  find  an- 
other higher  peak,  to  reach  which  we  had  to  descend 
somewhat  and  then  climb  the  peak  in  our  front. 
We  finally  got  our  animals  to  the  top  and  then  dis- 
covered it  was  impossible  to  take  them  further,  so 
Baker  and  Wright  took  the  horses  down  the  moun- 
tains, while  Hoyt  and  the  writer  agreed  to  hunt 
sheep  and  to  meet  the  outfit  down  on  the  other  side 
near  Count  Creek. 

After  climbing  around  on  the  rock  pinnacles  with 
knife-blade  edges,  where  one  slope  was  dangerously 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        79 

steep  while  the  other  side  was  a  perpendicular  drop 
thousands  of  feet  into  a  blind  canyon,  we  discovered 
the  rams  on  a  parallel  mountain  two  thousand  feet 
away,  resting  in  absolute  security  on  a  rocky  pin- 
nacle which  we  could  not  reach  within  a  day's  climb 
from  our  location  and  which  we  could  not  approach 
from  any  side  without  being  in  plain  view  of  the 
game.  We  decided  to  forget  these  rams  and  to 
continue  our  course  across  the  searing  rock  ridges, 
in  hope  of  running  across  other  sheep  before  we 
came  to  the  other  side  of  the  range.  The  wind 
blew  hard  and  the  temperature  was  low  on  the  pin- 
nacles and  our  efforts  were  barren  of  results  as  we 
saw  no  other  game,  and  came  at  last  to  the  other 
side  of  the  range,  but  before  descending  sat  down 
on  a  rocky  point  to  take  a  look  at  the  landscape*. 

Below  us  the  glasses  disclosed  our  horses  shrunk 
to  ant  proportions,  dwindling  down  the  slope  to 
Count  Creek,  across  which  reared  a  mighty  rock 
barrier  crowned  with  snow ;  beyond  this  twenty  miles 
the  icy  shoulders  and  crest  of  Mt.  Natazhat  loomed 
bluish  white  in  the  afternoon  sun  at  a  height  of 
seventeen  thousand  feet.  To  the  left  the  icy  wall 
of  Mt.  Constantine  ripped  the  sky  above  a  sea  of 
lesser  peaks,  while  to  the  south  Mt.  Wood  and  Mt. 
Steele  lorded  it  over  the  other  giants  that  have 
banded  together  to  form  the  St.  Elias  range.  The 
utter  immobility  and  finality  of  the  panorama,  the 
oppressive  silence  that  weighs  heavily  upon  the  hu- 


8o        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

man  mite  that  finds  himself  amidst  such  a  setting, 
begets  a  feeling  of  the  infinite  magnitude  and  might 
of  Great  Nature  and  a  corresponding  sense  of  help- 
lessness and  infinite  smallness  of  the  beholder;  for, 
gazing  at  the  towering  seas  of  snow-clad  crests 
tossed  to  heaven,  one  feels  the  sense  of  the  Maker 
of  such  a  stupendous  picture,  painted  with  majesty, 
strung  to  silence,  lit  by  the  glory  of  perfect  sun- 
shine, with  the  peace  of  God  mantling  the  scene  as 
a  benedicite. 

A  long  time  we  lingered  upon  the  heights,  loath 
to  depart  and  descend  to  our  little  tasks  and  small 
pleasures.  On  the  bench  above  Count  Creek  we 
overtook  the  horses  and  camped  at  the  first  willow 
patch  for  the  night.  After  hobbling  the  animals 
and  collecting  willows  for  a  fire,  our  attention  was 
attracted  to  a  yearling  caribou  that  possessed  an 
immense  amount  of  curiosity  and  persisted  in  cir- 
cling about  our  camp  at  close  range,  until  we  remem- 
bered that  we  needed  meat  and,  since  a  good  supply 
was  bent  on  coming  right  up  to  the  frying  pan,  we 
did  not  refuse  the  opportunity  to  replenish  our 
larder. 

After  supper  we  disdained  tent  and  were  content 
to  roll  up  in  our  warm  sleeping  robes  and  watch  the 
stars  just  above  the  shadowy  peaks,  until  the  Aurora, 
flaming  across  the  northern  sky,  held  all  our  interest. 
It  is  light  enough  to  permit  a  belated  writing  of  the 
diary,  and  against  the  pulsating  white  brightness  Mt. 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        8i 

Natazhat  sharply  silhouetted  keeps  watch  and  ward 
over  the  silent  wastes. 

August  24.  Very  cold  and  clear.  It  was  ar- 
ranged that  Wright  should  take  the  horses  and  move 
down  Count  Creek  to  make  camp  at  the  first  timber, 
while  we  hunt  on  foot  through  the  mountains  up  to- 
ward the  glacier.  Climbing  among  the  mountains 
two  miles  from  camp  we  located  over  two  hundred 
sheep,  all  of  them  ewes  and  lambs  variously  en- 
gaged; some  of  them  strung  out  along  the  slopes 
feeding,  others  huddled  together  resting.  Beyond 
the  sheep  were  several  herds  of  caribou  numbering 
fifty  in  all,  but  with  no  large  heads,  so  we  did  not 
disturb  any  of  the  game  and  simply  continued  our 
gentle  exercise  of  climbing  up  and  down  the  moun- 
tains until  noontide  found  us  low  down  on  the  bench 
just  above  the  canyon  at  the  foot  of  the  glacier. 
Here  we  found  a  band  of  twenty  ewes  and  lambs 
feeding  on  the  grass  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain; 
they  did  not  have  our  wind  and  watched  us  until  we 
came  within  seventy-five  feet,  when  they  made  ofiF 
at  an  unfrightened  pace,  frequently  stopping  to  look 
at  us.  About  three  hundred  yards  ahead  was  a  band 
of  six  rams  with  good  heads,  feeding  at  our  level; 
the  fleeing  ewes,  however,  alarmed  the  rams  and 
caused  them  to  move  closer  to  the  base  of  the  moun- 
tains, and  as  there  was  no  cover  for  a  stalk  we  went 
down  into  the  canyon  in  hope  of  working  around 
the  rams. 


82        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

Hardly  arrived  In  the  canyon,  a  large  caribou  bull 
was  seen  a  mile  ahead,  traveling  up  the  moraine  to- 
ward the  glacier,  and  Hoyt  with  Baker  went  after 
the  caribou,  while  the  writer  sat  down  to  observe 
the  sheep.  For  half  an  hour  the  sheep  continued  to 
feed  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain;  frequently  the  ewe 
sheep  would  come  close  to  where  the  rams  were 
feeding,  and  as  often  as  this  happened  the  male 
sheep  with  lowered  heads  would  ungallantly  drive  the 
ewes  away.  Finally  the  rams  started  for  the  moun- 
tains, traveling  up  a  draw  between  two  rocky  ridges. 
The  ewes  and  lambs  followed  almost  at  once,  and 
the  rams  turned  around  and  threatened  the  per- 
sistent female  sheep,  which  continued  to  parallel  the 
upward  course  of  the  rams  at  twenty  paces  to  their 
right,  until  half  way  to  the  summit  the  rams  de- 
liberately charged  the  ewes,  driving  and  herding 
them  to  the  crags  on  the  right  of  the  draw,  after 
which  the  lordly  males  came  down  and  crossing  the 
draw  climbed  to  the  pinnacles  on  the  left,  where  they 
lay  down  on  the  ridge. 

Baker  came  back  to  tell  the  writer  that  Hoyt  had 
stalked  the  caribou  up  on  the  moraine  as  close  as 
thirty  yards  and  with  six  shots  had  succeeded  in  kill- 
ing. After  reaching  Hoyt,  we  started  to  climb  the 
mountains  back  of  the  peak  where  the  rams  were 
resting,  and  toiled  upward  for  two  hours  on  a  steep 
slope  of  jagged  rocks  until  we  reached  the  pinnacles, 
only  to  observe  that  the  rams  had  moved  to  another 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        83 

peak  which  was  absolutely  Isolated  from  the  ridge 
and  which  we  could  not  climb  in  the  few  hours  of 
daylight  remaining.  Baker  and  the  writer  climbed 
across  the  face  of  the  rock  slope  to  firmer  footing 
and  then  went  carefully  down  the  ridge,  but  Hoyt 
started  down  the  rock  slide,  coasting  along  on  the 
moving  stream  of  rocks,  and  reached  the  bottom 
almost  before  Baker  and  the  writer  had  started  our 
slower  but  safer  mode  of  descent. 

On  the  way  down,  with  the  glasses  we  picked  up  a 
large  bull  caribou  on  the  bench  across  the  creek  three 
miles  distant,  and  the  writer  decided  to  try  to  reach 
the  animal  before  darkness  set  in.  Count  Creek  was 
too  high  for  fording  without  going  up-stream,  so 
we  went  up  to  the  glacier  where  the  creek  rushes 
out  from  its  tunneled  course  through  the  ice,  but  the 
water  was  too  deep  and  the  crevasses  prevented 
crossing  on  the  ice.  We  finally  succeeded  in  fording 
lower  down  and  in  the  dusk  climbed  the  canyon  walls 
to  the  bench  above,  only  to  find  the  caribou  had  left 
his  tundra  couch  and  was  rambling  away  from  us 
three  miles  ahead.  There  was  nothing  left  but  to 
come  back  to  the  creek  and  take  a  second  ice  water 
plunge  at  the  ford  and  start  down  the  canyon  for 
camp. 

Three  miles  down  the  gorge  we  met  this  same 
caribou  coming  up,  so  we  sat  down  on  the  rocks  to 
wait  for  him  and  he  came  as  close  as  seventy-five 
yards,  impelled  by  curiosity.     His  guard  horns  were 


84        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

very  large,  but  the  brow  points,  Instead  of  being 
palmated,  consisted  of  two  very  unsightly  straight 
prongs,  which  saved  his  life,  as  the  writer  did  not 
care  for  the  head.  The  old  fellow  stood  facing  us 
for  five  minutes,  trying  with  quivering  nostrils  to 
get  our  wind;  as  we  went  forward  he  went  off  on 
our  right  and  disappeared,  but  returned  again  for 
a  look  at  us  at  close  range,  which  procedure  he 
repeated  a  number  of  times  until  we  lost  him  in  the 
darkness.  For  ten  miles  we  stumbled  along  through 
the  canyon  on  the  difficult  bowlder-strewn  course, 
until  we  decided  we  must  be  near  the  timber  to  which 
Wright  had  promised  to  move  camp.  We  shouted 
singly  and  as  a  trio,  but  received  no  answering  call, 
so  continued  our  painful  course  along  the  gorge  for 
several  miles  where  we  indulged  in  further  pro- 
longed and  useless  shouting.  There  was  nothing 
left  except  to  climb  out  of  the  gorge  and  make  for 
the  place  we  had  left  Wright  in  the  morning,  so  we 
made  our  way  in  the  dark  up  four  hundred  feet  to 
the  tundra-covered  bench  and  then  stumbled  along 
two  miles  to  our  willow  patch  camp,  only  to  find 
that  Wright  had  left.  Somewhere  down  at  timber 
along  the  creek  we  knew  Wright  must  be  waiting 
with  a  good  fire  and  a  supply  of  grub  which  we 
needed  badly,  as  our  feet  were  cold  and  sore,  our 
bodies  cold,  wet,  and  weary  and  our  hunger  was  the 
mountain-climbing  variety  that  is  only  satisfied  by 
numerous  pounds  of  meat.     Across  the  tundra  we 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        85 

hurried,  tripping  over  low  willows,  splashing 
through  watery  morass,  falling  into  small  gulches, 
but  with  no  sign  of  a  welcoming  camp  fire.  One 
shot  from  the  rifle  brought  an  answering  shot  from 
afar,  which  heartened  us  to  continue  our  discourag- 
ing course ;  half  an  hour,  on  trying  another  shot,  we 
found  the  answering  crack  to  be  just  below  us,  and 
forging  onward  came  to  the  edge  of  the  canyon  and 
slid  down  the  side  to  a  roaring  camp  fire,  a  pile  of 
caribou  steaks,  and  a  comfortable  couch  of  spruce 
boughs. 

This  little  circle  of  light  looked  better  to  us  than 
any  palace  we  had  ever  seen;  we  arrived  at  11.30 
P.M.,  absolutely  faded  and  unable  to  take  another 
mile;  at  12.30  we  were  still  eating  caribou  steaks  and 
drying  out  our  wet  garments  close  to  the  blazing  logs 
and  feeling  almost  ready  to  start  out  again.  In- 
stead, we  sat  around  and  smoked  our  pipes  in  quiet 
contentment  and  watched  Wright  baking  bread  in  a 
fry  pan,  which  turned  out  a  pastry  product  about  an 
inch  thick  and  nicely  browned,  but  of  the  consistency 
of  leather.  Baker  looked  at  it,  felt  of  it,  and 
chewed  a  piece  for  a  moment  and  then  remarked  to 
Wright :  "  You  call  yourself  a  baker,  but  you  evi- 
dently worked  a  few  days  in  a  leather  shop  and  you 
are  nothing  but  a  darned  tanner.'*  Wright,  how- 
ever, claims  to  be  "  only  a  horse  wrangler  "  and  will 
give  Baker  a  *'  chance  to  do  some  real  baking  to- 
morrow night." 


86        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

August  25.  Six  o'clock  this  morning,  found  us 
feeling  very  fresh,  and  on  our  horses  headed  down 
Count  Creek,  where  we  journeyed  along  the  can- 
yon six  miles  until  we  reached  the  Generc  River 
which  rises  at  Klutlan  Glacier.  For  ten  miles  we 
traveled  along  the  side  of  the  glacier,  looking  for 
bears  and  seeing  many  tracks  and  recent  diggings, 
but  not  locating  any  animals.  This  glacier  is  ten 
miles  across  and  runs  back  into  the  range  many 
miles;  icy  masses  are  continually  breaking  off  its 
sides,  crashing  and  cracking  in  their  fall.  It  is  won- 
derfully impressive  to  behold  this  world-shaping 
force  at  work.  Across  the  ten-mile  front  of  the  ice 
mass  is  a  push  moraine  of  miniature  mountains, 
which  the  glacier  is  slowly  but  irresistibly  pushing 
ahead  of  it;  on  each  side  are  moraines  which  the 
glacier  has  flung  on  either  flank,  while  looking  up 
the  ice  mass  for  twenty  miles  we  see  the  valley  cut 
through  by  the  stupendous  power  and  pressure  of 
this  glacial  mass,  impelled  by  the  pressure  of  mile 
upon  mile  of  ice  fields  inevitably  descending  from  the 
higher  fields,  cutting  through  mountains  and  carry- 
ing every  obstacle  before  it.  We  are  back  in  Na- 
ture's workshop,  back  to  an  early  geological  age,  and 
are  permitted  to  be  awed  spectators  of  this  world- 
shaping  process,  slowly  but  surely  cutting  out  a  val- 
ley and  piling  up  mountainous  moraines.  In  the 
course  of  time  the  glacial  movement  will  cease,  the 
ice  mass  will  melt  and  run  to  the  sea,  but  the  moun- 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        87 

tains  It  has  pushed  up  will  bear  witness  and  the  val- 
ley will  testify  to  the  mighty  forces  we  have  seen  in 
action. 

At  the  last  willow  patch  v/e  made  our  camp,  which 
consisted  in  gathering  some  willows  for  fire  and  hob- 
bling our  unsaddled  horses,  as  we  sleep  out  to-night 
with  the  sky  for  shelter.  After  a  light  lunch,  com- 
posed of  tea,  cold  meat,  and  Wright's  everlasting 
bread,  we  went  up  the  mountain  five  miles,  over- 
looking the  glacier,  and  came  to  a  bowl  or  pocket 
in  the  mountains,  running  back  two  miles,  with  a 
small  glacier  descending  from  the  snow-capped  rim 
of  the  bowl.  A  herd  of  twenty  caribou  with  a  num- 
ber of  bulls  were  feeding  on  the  lowest  level,  so  we 
looked  them  over  with  the  glasses  and,  finding  no 
large  heads,  continued  our  hunt  for  sheep.  Hard 
climbing  the  rest  of  the  afternoon  failed  to  reveal  a 
single  sheep,  so  we  started  back  to  the  willow  patch. 

Looking  up  the  glacier,  we  could  see  a  snow- 
storm whirling  and  swirling  among  the  peaks,  while 
the  wind  blew  a  chilly  blast  upon  us  from  the  icy 
fields  of  the  Klutlan,  two  hundred  yards  to  our 
right.  At  the  willow  patch  we  erected  a  canvas 
windbreak  with  our  tarpaulin,  to  keep  off  the  blast 
that  drove  into  us  across  the  ice  fields,  and  then  went 
at  the  pleasant  task  of  frying  caribou  meat,  while 
Baker  undertook  to  make  some  real  bread.  Baker 
really  worked  hard  to  produce  edible  pastry,  but  the 
result  was  exactly  as  bad  as  Wright's  product  of  the 


88        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

night  before.  When  it  was  finished  Wright  picked 
up  the  inch-thick  loaf,  looked  at  it  curiously,  tasted 
it,  and  then  inquired  of  Baker:  "  Pretty  good  tan 
youVe  got  on  it,  but  what  do  you  use  it  for?  A 
saddle  pad?"  When  we  came  to  eat  it  we  found 
a  little  lasted  a  long  time,  and  voted  that  our  guide 
had  not  been  fittingly  named,  and  hereafter  he 
should  forget  his  deluded  parents  had  named. him 
Jim  Baker  and  should  respond  to  the  more  fitting 
name  of  Jim  ''  Tanner." 

August  26,  Bitter  cold  last  night,  but  we  were 
entirely  comfortable,  sleeping  out  in  our  eiderdown 
robes  with  no  tent  and  with  the  glacier  but  two  hun- 
dred yards  from  our  willow  patch.  This  morning 
we  found  everything  frozen  up  tight,  which  looks 
like  an  early  winter  in  this  country,  as  the  range  is 
covered  with  new  snow  fallen  upon  the  peaks.  We 
decided  to  go  farther  up  the  glacier  and  hunt  the 
mountains  for  sheep,  which  do  not  seem  to  be  on  this 
side  of  the  range,  though  we  have  already  looked 
over  many  miles  of  the  range  without  seeing  a  single 
sheep.  About  ten  miles  farther  up  the  glacier  we 
saw  a  small  band  of  rams  and  in  order  to  get  a 
better  look  at  them,  as  well  as  to  look  over  the  peaks 
beyond,  we  climbed  through  a  canyon  up  to  the  rock 
slope  and  continued  up  until  we  were  above  the  rams, 
which  were  only  four  years  old  with  heads  that  were 
too  small.  We  did  not  molest  these  snow-white 
sheep,  but  climbed  higher  until  we  could  look  over 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        89 

all  the  mountains  we  could  hope  to  reach  in  a  day's 
climb.  For  an  hour  we  searched  the  range  through 
our  glasses  without  being  able  to  pick  up  a  single 
sheep.  We  then  decided  to  go  back  to  our  camp  on 
Bull  Creek,  and  accordingly  made  our  way  down 
the  mountain  to  our  willow  patch,  saddled  the 
horses,  and  started  down  the  moraine  beside  the 
glacier. 

At  5.30  we  turned  for  a  last  look  at  the  ten-mile- 
wide  mass  of  Klutlan  Glacier,  extending  back  into 
the  heart  of  the  range,  and  then  made  our  way 
across  the  low  tundra  toward  Count  Creek,  which 
we  were  unable  to  reach  —  so  we  camped  on  the 
tundra  for  the  night. 

August  27.  Making  an  early  start,  a  couple  of 
hours'  travel  brought  us  to  the  bottom  of  Count 
Creek  Canyon,  which  we  crossed  over,  and  led  our 
horses  up  the  other  side  and  began  our  climb  across 
the  tundra-covered  mountains  toward  the  St.  Clair. 
On  the  way  over  the  mountains  we  saw  over  one 
hundred  caribou  in  different  bands,  but  none  of  the 
bulls  had  interesting  heads.  Before  descending  the 
mountain  we  located  three  moose  feeding  in  a  pond 
four  miles  away  down  in  the  timber,  our  glasses  dis- 
closed the  moose  to  be  cows,  so  we  were  not  diverted 
from  our  objective  point  on  Bull  Creek. 

About  noon  we  reached  the  bottoms  of  St.  Clair 
River  and  headed  up  Bull  Creek,  over  whose  rocky 
course  we  were  picking  our  slow  way,  when  within 


90        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

a  quarter  of  a  mile  of  camp  we  met  the  pack  train, 
loaded  and  coming  down  the  creek,  as  they  were 
changing  camp  to  a  place  on  the  St.  Clair.  We  had 
not  dined  since  5  a.m.,  and  we  did  what  ravenously 
hungry  out-of-door  men  would  do  under  like  circum- 
stances; that  IS  to  say,  we  held  up  the  animals  with 
the  kitchen  outfit  and  grub  that  had  been  prepared 
for  supper.  Bruce  Fisher  the  cook  was  very  good 
about  the  "  hold  up  ";  instead  of  objecting,  he  will- 
ingly unloaded  pots  and  kettles  and  dishes,  built  a 
fire  in  the  rocks,  boiled  tea,  fried  steaks,  and  brought 
out  an  untouched  pan  of  macaroni  and  cheese  which 
he  had  baked  for  the  evening  rneal.  When  we  had 
cleaned  up  all  the  grub  in  sight,  Bruce  commenced 
to  grin  and  said :  "  What's  the  matter  with  you 
fellows?  You  act  like  grub  has  been  scarce  in 
your  country."  We  told  Bruce  that,  "  We  had 
plenty  of  makings,  but  no  cook,  but  instead  we  had  a 
fine  horse  wrangler  and  a  tanner." 

Quite  contented,  we  helped  Fisher  wash  up  the 
dishes  and  pack  the  kitchen  animals,  after  which  we 
all  traveled  down  the  creek  to  the  St.  Clair,  and 
went  up-stream  five  miles  and  camped  in  the  timber 
with  the  snow  peaks  at  our  back.  Beside  our  camp 
ran  a  beautiful  clear  creek  of  ice  water,  in  which 
Wolcott  and  the  writer  performed  the  ancient  and 
almost  forgotten  ceremony  of  taking  a  bath  which 
stands  as  a  record  for  speed.  During  the  evening 
we  sat  around  the  fire  and  listened  to  the  account  of 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        91 

the  hunting  during  our  absence.  Settle,  Wolcott, 
and  Cutting  had  been  out  among  the  crags  daily  and 
even  a  part  of  the  night  and  had  very  fair  shooting. 

On  the  day  we  left  Bull  Creek  for  our  journey 
to  Klutlan  Glacier,  Wolcott  with  Hayden  and  Cut- 
ting, and  Bettle  with  Dixon  and  Albert,  started  up 
to  the  head-waters  of  the  St.  Clair  River.  While 
going  over  the  mountain  opposite  our  camp  they 
saw  a  small  bunch  of  rams  and  a  bull  caribou  on  the 
sky  line.  Cutting  tried  for  the  caribou,  which  he 
stalked  within  two  hundred  yards,  and  missed;  the 
bull  became  frightened  and  ran  in  the  direction  of 
the  rams,  which  stampeded  with  the  caribou,  and 
dashed  across  the  range.  Continuing  their  course 
up  the  St.  Clair,  they  took  the  left  branch  at  the 
forks,  and  camped  high  up  the  valley  beyond  the 
last  timber. 

Wolcott  located  a  bunch  of  rams  on  a  snow  peak 
back  of  camp  and  began  a  hard  climb;  the  rams 
moved  away,  however,  before  the  hunter  had  pro- 
gressed far.  Another  ram  with  a  fine  head  was 
located  off  on  the  ridge  a  considerable  distance  and 
Wolcott  went  after  him.  A  hard  climb  brought 
him  to  the  level  of  the  ram  and  Wolcott  began  a 
difficult  stalk  for  a  shot;  almost  within  shooting  dis- 
tance the  wind  suddenly  changed,  and  the  wary  ani- 
mal threw  up  his  head  as  he  got  the  scent  of  the 
hunter  and  in  a  flash  had  dashed  away  over  the 
mountain.     Bettle,  in  the  meantime,  had  located  a 


92        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

bull  caribou,  roaming  about  feeding  on  white  moss 
across  the  valley  and  high  up  on  the  mountains. 
The  cover  for  stalking  was  very  poor,  but  by  climb- 
ing hard  the  hunter  came  within  two  hundred  yards 
of  the  bull  and  killed  him  with  two  shots,  after 
which  the  head  was  skinned  out.  Bettle's  caribou 
is  really  very  beautiful  with  long  guard  horns  and 
good  beam,  besides  excellent  and  symmetrical  brow 
points.  The  head  is  not  wonderfully  large,  but  it 
is  fair  size  and  quite  the  best  specimen  we  have  seen 
thus  far. 

On  the  second  day  out  Wolcott  located  a  bull 
caribou  with  good  head,  up  on  the  glacier  at  the 
head  of  the  river.  A  long  stalk  from  the  place 
where  they  left  the  horses  brought  him  within  shoot- 
ing range.  Wolcott  wounded  the  animal,  which 
made  off  at  a  slow  pace.  After  following  for  sev- 
eral miles  he  came  up  with  the  game,  and  killed, 
after  which  Jack  Hayden  skinned  out  the  head. 
Cutting  and  Bettle  with  Albert  and  Dixon  made  a 
difficult  climb  to  the  peaks  that  rise  above  the  glacier 
on  the  left  of  the  St.  Clair,  and  came  to  a  paradise 
for  rams.  On  looking  over  several  bands  they 
found  that  there  were  a  number  in  each  band  that 
had  imperfect  heads,  in  that  one  of  the  horns  were 
broken  off  or  broomed  at  the  points  from  fighting, 
but  they  selected  a  band  that  had  two  very  large  and 
perfect  heads  and  began  to  stalk  them. 

Hard  and  slow  climbing  brought  them  within  a 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       93 

hundred  yards  of  the  rams,  two  which  were  seen  to 
possess  immense  heads.  Dixon,  looking  at  them 
through  the  glasses,  told  the  hunters  those  two 
heads  were  *'  perfect  from  the  base  to  the  tip  and 
were  close  to  the  record  for  size."  Both  hunters 
became  nervous  and  missed  the  easy  shots,  while  the 
rams  galloped  over  the  range. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  they  located  a  band  of 
thirty-two  rams  across  the  range  and  high  up  above 
a  glacier,  and  they  began  a  hard  climb  to  reach  them 
before  dark.  Dixon  with  his  dog  started  to  make 
a  wide  circuit,  in  order  to  head  off  the  rams  in  case 
they  should  attempt  to  bolt  to  the  right ;  on  his  way 
around  the  mountain  he  came  upon  six  rams,  which 
the  dog  brought  to  bay  on  a  five  foot  ledge  which 
the  rams  completely  occupied.  Every  time  the  dog 
would  try  to  climb  the  ledge  the  rams,  massed  tightly 
together  with  lowered  heads,  presented  a  solid  front 
of  sharp  horns  to  hurl  the  dog  backwards,  and  when 
the  dog  would  attempt  a  flanking  movement  the  rams 
would  quickly  shift  their  front,  always  meeting  the 
attack  with  a  perfect  alignment  of  massed  horns. 
So  formidable  a  defense  is  even  effective  against  the 
wolves  that  prey  upon  the  sheep  in  the  winter  time, 
when  the  sheep  are  found  low  down  on  the  benches 
and  on  the  tundra.  Once  among  the  rocks  a  sheep 
can  usually  outrun  a  wolf,  but  it  sometimes  happens 
that  a  band  of  rams  is  brought  to  bay  on  a  ledge, 
and  when  these  sharp  horned  monarchs  of  the  crags 


94        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

present  a  solid  front  to  a  wolf  as  they  stand  upon  a 
ledge  the  wolf  does  not  press  the  attack,  but  slinks 
away. 

About  seven  o'clock  Dixon  had  circled  the  moun- 
tain and  had  skillfully  driven  the  thirty-two  rams 
above  the  glacier  into  a  pocket,  from  which  the  sheep 
could  not  possibly  escape  as  the  walls  were  perpen- 
dicular. Cutting  and  Bettle  had  been  doing  some 
strenuous  climbing  in  the  meantime,  to  reach  the 
pocket  where  Dixon  had  the  rams  so  secure  that  the 
hunters  could  shoot  them  at  a  range  of  twenty  feet. 
Darkness  was  rapidly  shrouding  the  peaks,  when 
Cutting  and  Bettle  climbed  to  the  glacier  within  one 
hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  the  thirty-two  rams  bot- 
tled up  by  the  guide  in  the  pocket. 

Dixon  tried  to  get  the  hunters  to  travel  just  an- 
other hundred  yards  and  pick  out  the  best  head,  but 
the  hunters  confessed  to  having  reached  the  limit  of 
their  power  to  travel  onward  and  upward  and  at 
one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  in  the  dusk  began  to 
shoot  at  the  huddled  mass  of  rams,  killing  four  of 
them  before  they  desisted.  It  was  really  a  pity  they 
did  not  in  some  way  manage  to  get  closer,  as  their 
Indiscriminate  shooting  brought  them  two  small  but 
perfect  heads,  while  the  other  heads  they  had  killed 
were  broken  off  at  the  points.  However,  they  were 
at  such  a  point  of  exhaustion  that  they  left  their 
guns  and  camera  up  on  the  glacier  rather  than  carry 
them  back  to  camp,  whither  they  stumbled  In  the 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        95 

cold  and  dark  across  the  mountains  and  arrived  at 
two  A.M.  the  following  day. 

Wolcott  went  out  the  following  day  for  sheep, 
and  climbed  all  the  morning  without  seeing  anything 
except  multitudes  of  ewes  and  lambs  dotting  the 
mountains.  In  the  afternoon,  however,  he  located 
a  bunch  of  rams  on  a  pinnacle  and  succeeded  in 
climbing  above  them;  selecting  the  largest  he  shot 
him  through  the  body,  but  the  ram  got  on  his  feet 
and  made  off  across  the  range,  Wolcott  and  Hayden 
following  his  bloody  trail  over  the  crags.  About 
dark  they  found  him,  dead,  and  taking  the  head  be- 
gan to  feel  their  way  across  the  mountains,  using  the 
stock  of  their  guns  to  pick  each  step  as  they  came 
down  from  the  summit  over  the  bowlder-strewn 
slopes  in  the  darkness.  At  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  stiff  with  cold  and  worn  to  a  frazzle,  these 
two  stumbled  to  the  willow  patch  and  rolled  into 
their  sleeping  robes  to  re^t  and  to  thaw  out. 

The  next  day  Cutting  and  Bettle  recovered  the 
guns  they  had  left  on  the  glacier,  together  with  the 
Graflex  camera,  which  last  had  been  spoiled  by  being 
left  out  and  was  entirely  out  of  commission.  While 
scanning  the  country  from  one  of  the  peaks,  looking 
for  sheep,  the  hunters  located  a  grizzly  bear  and  cub 
feeding  on  the  carcass  of  Wolcott's  caribou  six  miles 
away  on  the  glacier  at  the  source  of  the  St.  Clair. 
A  number  of  valleys  with  mountains  lay  between 
them  and  the  bears,  but  they  started  out  and  de- 


96        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

scended  into  one  valley,  climbed  the  mountains,  and 
finally  came  out  on  the  ridge  overlooking  the  creek 
where  the  bears  were  feeding. 

Bettle  looks  a  bit  embarrassed  and  as  Dixon,  the 
guide,  insists  on  telling  the  story  of  the  hunt,  we 
record  the  incident  as  Dixon  gave  it  about  the  blaz- 
ing friendship  fire. 

"  We  had  to  go  down  to  the  creek  bottom  where 
we  stalked  up  for  a  thousand  yards  with  the  wind  in 
our  favor,  but  in  plain  sight  of  the  grizzlies. 
Nearly  on  all  fours  we  went  up  the  creek,  and  every 
time  the  bears  faced  our  way  we  would  drop  down 
until  they  began  feeding  again  or  faced  in  an  oppo- 
site direction.  In  this  way  we  gained  a  low  ridge 
running  parallel  to  the  creek  where  the  bears  still 
continued  to  feed,  and  near  the  crest  we  ran  rapidly 
up  wind  to  a  knoll  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  from 
the  animals;  creeping  to  the  ridge  we  saw  the  griz- 
zlies below  us,  curled  up  asleep  beside  the  partially 
devoured  caribou,  and  after  waiting  a  moment  for 
the  hunters  to  recover  their  breath  Bettle  opened 
fire  on  the  large  grizzly. 

"  The  shot  struck  her  paw  and  she  turned  a  com- 
plete somersault  and  began  to  roar;  the  hundred 
pound  cub  sat  straight  up  behind  its  mother  and  Cut- 
ting shot  at  it,  but  the  aim  was  low  and  the  bullet 
hit  the  big  bear  in  the  shoulder.  Bettle's  second 
shot  creased  the  wounded  animal  in  the  back  and  she 
started  to  run,  when  Cutting  fired  again,  hitting  her 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        97 

in  the  shoulder  and  laying  her  low.  All  the  while 
the  cub  sat  up  bewildered  and  squalling,  and  we  went 
down  to  the  dead  grizzly.  The  cub  in  the  mean- 
time came  up  behind  Bettle  and  made  a  rush  for 
him;  Bettle  gave  one  backward  look,  forgot  all 
about  his  rifle,  and  like  a  shot  he  was  off,  tearing 
over  the  rocks,  leaping  over  willows,  at  a  speed  that 
no  bear  could  hope  to  equal;  the  cub  tore  after  the 
hunter  for  a  distance,  but  soon  realized  it  was  hope- 
lessly outclassed  in  the  speed  contest,  so  sat  up  and 
looked  at  the  vanishing  Bettle;  Cutting  ended  the 
game  by  shooting  the  cub  through  the  chest,  when 
Bettle  gingerly  made  his  way  back  to  the  starting 
point  of  the  race." 

In  view  of  the  very  few  rams  Hoyt  and  the 
writer  saw  on  the  mountains  of  Count  Creek  and  the 
Generc,  and  the  presence  of  numerous  bands  on  the 
St.  Clair  ranges,  we  decided  to  spend  some  time  on 
the  St.  Clair,  in  hope  of  getting  among  the  rams. 

August  2^,  Hoyt  and  myself  took  Baker  and  the 
horses  and  started  at  six  o'clock  up  the  St.  Clair, 
and  at  the  forks  took  the  right  branch,  up  which  we 
traveled  for  five  miles.  A  survey  of  the  moun- 
tains revealed  no  game,  so  we  retraced  our  course 
to  the  forks  and  rode  up  the  left  branch,  where  we 
located  hundreds  of  sheep  like  white  dots  high  up 
on  the  slopes  three  miles  away.  Most  of  them  were 
ewes,  but  there  were  several  bands  of  rams  feeding 
apart,  and  we  decided  to  tether  our  horses  in  the 


98        CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

willows  and  climb  for  the  rams.  We  had  hardly 
started  across  the  tundra  than  we  located  a  herd  of 
eighteen  caribou  one  thousand  yards  dead  ahead, 
with  only  a  few  scattered  willows  and  several  two- 
feet-deep  gulches  between  us  for  cover.  The  wind, 
however,  was  in  our  favor  and  we  began  a  very  dif- 
ficult stalk  across  the  open. 

By  crawling  along  on  all  fours  we  reached  the 
scanty  cover  of  the  willows  and  made  our  way  up 
the  shallow  gulch,  when  we  again  crawled  across 
to  another  patch  of  willows.  The  caribou  were 
two  hundred  yards  away,  some  feeding  and  some 
lying  down;  one  cow  looked  directly  at  Baker,  who 
dropped  on  all  fours  and  began  to  eat  grass  in  a 
vain  effort  to  deceive  the  animal  into  believing  the 
guide  to  be  a  caribou;  but  the  animal's  sight  was  too 
good,  and  she  gave  the  alarm  and  the  herd  was  off 
at  a  rapid  pace.  The  writer  ran  through  the  wil- 
lows in  order  to  get  a  clear  shot  at  the  largest  bull 
and  broke  his  leg  at  the  first  shot  at  two  hundred 
yards'  range;  the  animal  continued  to  run,  and  my 
second  and  third  shots  were  complete  misses,  while 
the  fourth  shot  ranged  through  the  shoulder  and 
slowed  him  down  considerably.  At  two  hundred 
and  fifty  yards  the  bull  stood  looking  at  us  for  a 
moment,  and  the  writer  recovered  from  his  poor 
shooting  and  put  the  bull  out  with  the  fifth  shot. 
When  we  had  skinned  out  the  animal  and  dressed 
the  meat  and  packed  it  on  our  horses,  we  started 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON        99 

again  for  our  rams  on  the  mountains,  but  the  moun- 
tains were  hidden  in  swirling  clouds  of  snow,  entirely 
obscuring  the  sheep  and  making  hunting  upon  the 
slopes  a  hopeless  game  of  blind  man's  buff.  We 
sat  down  to  make  a  fire  for  our  tea  pail,  and  as  it 
began  to  rain  in  the  valley,  we  decided  to  make  our 
way  back  to  camp. 

While  riding  along  the  St.  Clair  bottoms  in  the 
afternoon  with  the  cold  rain  and  hail  pelting  us  in 
the  back  and  the  snow  swirling  over  the  mountains 
on  either  side,  we  observed  a  little  knoll  near  the 
bank  around  which  six  red  foxes  were  playing,  dart- 
ing in  and  out  of  several  holes  or  tunnels.  We  sat 
upon  our  horses  and  watched  them  playing  for  some 
time  only  seventy-five  yards  away.  As  we  went  for- 
ward slowly  they  sat  up  like  red  fluffy  dogs  and 
watched  us  until  we  had  covered  half  the  distance, 
when  four  of  them  stampeded  and  with  outstretched 
tails  almost  sailed  up  the  bank  and  over  the  ridge. 
The  other  two  merely  crept  to  the  edge  of  their 
tunnel  into  the  knoll  and  continued  their  intent 
watchfulness  until  we  were  within  fifteen  feet,  when 
with  incredible  swiftness  they  flashed  into  their 
holes. 

August  27.  When  in  camp  none  of  us  dream 
of  getting  up  until  Fisher  gives  his  early  breakfast 
call  of  "  muck-a-muck,"  so  we  simply  continue  to 
sleep  until  we  are  called.  This  morning  at  four 
Fisher  had  a  mild  attack  of  humor  and  came  to  my 


loo      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

tent  and  began  to  shake  me  until  I  was  quite  awake 
and  inquired,  "What  goes  on?" 

Fisher  merely  poked  his  head  in  the  tent  and 
said,  "  It  is  snowing  hard  on  the  mountains,  so  you 
fellows  can't  see  to  hunt  to-day,  and  I  just  thought 
to  tell  you  that  you  don't  have  to  wake  up  so  early.'* 
I  wonder  if  Fisher  is  a  bit  Irish. 

It  has  snowed  very  hard  on  the  mountain  all  day, 
but  in  the  river  bottoms  we  have  only  had  rain  and 
hail.  Every  one  has  been  busy  at  various  tasks, 
shoeing  horses,  skinning  out  heads  and  salting  hides, 
repairing  clothes,  and  putting  new  hobnails  in  boots. 
We  plan  an  early  retirement  after  supper  and  a 
very  early  start  in  the  morning. 


CHAPTER  VII 

**  The  Winter !  the  brightness  that  blinds  you, 
The  white  land  locked  tight  as  a  drum, 
The  cold  fear  that  follows  and  finds  you, 
The  silence  that  bludgeons  you  dumb." 

August  JO.  The  weather  had  cleared  and  this 
morning  at  five  o'clock  we  saddled  our  horses  and 
loaded  a  pack  animal  with  bedding,  frying  pan,  tea 
kettle,  with  a  few  provisions,  and  Hoyt  and  myself, 
with  Dixon  and  Albert,  started  for  a  three  days' 
hunt  among  the  crags  at  the  head  of  the  St.  Clair. 
Arrived  at  the  forks,  we  took  the  left  branch  and 
traveled  until  noon  up  to  the  head-waters  among  the 
peaks  where  Cutting  and  Bettle  saw  so  many  rams. 
Dispatching  a  light  lunch  and  hobbling  our  horses 
on  a  bench,  where  there  was  slough  grass,  we  began 
to  climb  the  mountains  and  while  crossing  the  ridge 
observed  two  rams  resting  among  the  crags  three 
miles  away.  We  started  up  after  them  and  when 
half-way  up  the  rock  slope,  the  two  rams  began  to 
descend  Into  the  canyon ;  at  the  same  time  we  noticed 
two  other  rams  resting  on  a  distant  peak,  and  we 
drew  lots  to  decide  that  Hoyt  with  Dixon  should 
stalk  the  two  sheep  on  the  sky  line,  while  the  writer 

lOI 


102      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

and  Albert  should  go  after  those  descending  into 
the  canyon. 

Getting  into  the  canyon  was  slow  and  difficult 
business  as  we  were  obliged  to  get  under  cover  of  a 
number  of  ridges  in  order  to  keep  out  of  sight  of 
the  sheep,  and  after  ascending  the  canyon  a  half 
mile  we  found  the  sheep  had  crossed  over  and  were 
slowly  feeding  up  the  mountain;  so  we  put  on  full 
steam  ahead  in  an  effort  to  climb  the  side  of  the 
mountain  and  head  off  the  ascending  rams. 

Wet  with  perspiration  and  panting  with  the  effort 
of  speeding  up  the  rocky  slopes,  we  were  about  half 
way  to  the  first  ridge  when  we  happened  to  look 
up;  there  stood  the  two  rams  with  perfect,  wide- 
spreading  horns  nine  hundred  feet  above  us,  looking 
at  our  climbing  with  deep  disgust ;  but  on  raising  the 
rifle  for  a  chance  shot,  the  rams  vanished.  There 
was  no  point  whatever  in  going  after  them,  but  we 
had  nothing  else  to  do  and  desired  to  have  a  look  at 
the  range  above,  so  we  climbed  up  three  thousand 
feet  and  sat  down  just  below  snow  line.  The  moun- 
tains were  covered  with  ewes  and  lambs  feeding 
undisturbed,  but  we  saw  no  bands  of  rams,  and  even 
the  two  we  had  attempted  to  head  off  had  evidently 
crossed  over  the  range. 

Looking  across  the  valley  we  saw  Hoyt  and 
Dixon,  mere  specks,  climbing  through  the  snow 
fields;  at  last  they  reached  the  knife-blade  summit 
and  dodged  behind  the  pinnacles,  but  their  quarry 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      103 

went  down  the  other  snow  slope  and  the  hunters 
ran  down  wind  to  within  one  hundred  and  fifty 
yards  of  the  rams  that  were  plunging  about  in  the 
deep  snow.  Hoyt  picked  the  largest  and  fired  five 
shots  as  the  ram  mounted  toward  the  crest,  two 
shots  went  wide  and  two  were  hits,  but  the  ram  con- 
tinued to  run  until  the  fifth  shot  put  him  out.  While 
they  were  engaged  in  taking  off  the  scalp  and  horns, 
the  Indian  and  myself  started  for  the  willow  patch 
where  we  were  to  camp,  and  had  hardly  arrived 
when  Hoyt  and  Dixon  came  in,  bringing  the  head. 
This  is.  the  best  specimen  any  of  us  have  gotten: 
the  horns  from  base  to  point  are  symmetrical  and 
perfect,  with  a  circumference  measurement  at  base 
of  fourteen  inches,  a  length  of  thirty-six  inches  and 
twenty-seven  inches  spread;  the  annular  rings  show 
seven  years  of  age. 

We  are  camped  at  a  willow  patch  only  twenty 
feet  above  the  rocky  river  bottom,  but  we  are  a 
number  of  miles  above  the  last  timber  and  there 
is  nothing  to  burn  except  a  few  willow  sticks,  for 
which  we  organized  a  hunting  party  and  collected 
enough  with  which  to  build  a  small  fire  for  supper 
and  a  supply  for  breakfast.  By  adding  chunks  of 
sheep  and  caribou  fat  to  our  willows  we  maintained 
our  fire  long  enough  to  fry  some  sheep  meat  and 
boil  our  tea  bucket;  however,  we  have  no  fuel  for 
warmth  and  we  are  camped  at  an  altitude  of  fifty- 
three  hundred  feet  and  it  is  bitter  cold,  so  we  will 


104      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

use  the  sky  for  shelter  since  we  have  no  tent,  and 
roll  up  in  our  sleeping  robes  for  warmth. 

August  57.  Fair  and  cold.  Across  the  St.  Clair 
bottoms,  which  are  a  half-mile  wide,  the  mountains 
rise  abruptly  from  a  tundra  bench,  and  looking  at 
the  mountain  opposite  our  willow  patch  without  the 
aid  of  glasses  we  located  a  band  of  seven  rams,  feed- 
ing low  down  on  the  slope.  In  the  gap  through  the 
mountain  wall  we  saw  over  two  hundred  of  the  beau- 
tiful, snow-white  animals  dotting  the  slopes,  but 
they  were  all  ewes  and  lambs,  with  the  exception  of 
a  large  band  of  rams  six  miles  back,  which  it  was 
impossible  to  reach,  as  we  would  have  to  stalk  near 
the  ewes,  which  would  inevitably  stampede  and 
frighten  the  rams  that  were  feeding  upward  on  the 
near-by  mountain.  We  therefore  started  on  horse 
across  the  bottoms,  fording  the  several  branches  of 
the  St.  Clair. 

Arrived  on  the  tundra  bench,  we  tethered  the 
stock  and  began  our  ascent  of  a  ridge  leading  up- 
ward to  the  snow  slopes,  where  we  stopped  to  take 
another  look  at  the  rams.  We  found  the  entire 
band  had  stopped  feeding  and  had  made  their  way 
to  the  top  pinnacles,  where  they  were  lying  down  en- 
joying the  landscape.  A  stalk  from  below  in  plain 
sight  of  the  game  was  impossible  of  success,  a  stalk 
on  the  flank  was  equally  futile  for  the  same  reason, 
and  to  attempt  to  circle  the  mountain  and  come  at 
them  from  the  rear  was  entirely  out  of  our  consid- 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      105 

eration,  for  the  reason  that  they  could  not  only  see 
us  equally  well  climbing  the  other  side  of  the  slope, 
but  would  get  our  wind  long  before  we  had  started 
our  real  climb  up  the  rocks. 

We  were  in  a  situation  that  often  confronts  the 
hunter  of  this  most  difficult  of  all  game.  The  keen 
zest  of  sheep  hunting  is  due  not  at  all  to  the  fero- 
cious nature  of  the  quarry,  for  mountain  sheep  are 
not  only  utterly  harmless  to  man,  but  are  not  even 
destructive  of  other  game;  the  lure  lies  entirely  in 
the  difficulty  and  effort  involved  in  obtaining  these 
beautiful  pure-white  animals,  their  noble  heads 
crowned  with  massive,  curling,  amber-colored  horns. 
The  difficulties  are  many :  the  sheep  not  only  have  a 
marvelously  keen  vision,  but  they  match  this  fac- 
ulty with  an  equally  acute  sense  of  smell,  so  that  it 
Is  utterly  futile  to  attempt  to  hunt  them  within  their 
range  of  vision  and  quite  as  useless  to  try  for  them 
even  if  hidden,  when  the  wind  blows  from  the  hunter 
to  the  sheep,  as  they  stampede  more  quickly  at  the 
scent  of  the  hunter  than  at  his  appearance. 

When  we  add  to  the  highly  sensitive  natural  en- 
dowments of  the  mountain  sheep  the  fact  that  its 
habitat  lies  at  the  very  top  of  the  crags,  thousands 
upon  thousands  of  feet  up,  amid  peaks  of  eternal 
snow,  to  reach  which  man  must  not  only  have  good 
legs  but  strong  heart  and  lungs,  immense  vitality, 
and  infinite  patience,  we  have  the  two  reasons  why 
sheep  hunting  is  not  only  the  most  difficult  of  all, 


io6      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

but,  by  reason  of  the  very  difficulties,  is  the  king  of 
sports,  to  which  no  other  hunting  compares.  The 
situation  in  which  we  found  ourselves  was  exactly  a 
case  in  point,  as  the  sheep  had  chosen  their  vantage 
point  on  a  peak,  to  which  with  much  labor  and  energy 
we  certainly  could  climb,  but  which  we  could  not 
even  approach  without  being  seen  by  the  wary  ani- 
mals. We  did  not  even  dare  to  climb  up  in  front 
of  them  for  the  purpose  of  alarming  them,  because 
we  wished  to  hunt  for  sheep  on  the  peaks  back  of 
this  particular  band,  and  to  stampede  these  would 
have  been  to  stampede  others  on  the  rear  peaks. 

There  were  but  two  alternatives  left  us  in  this 
situation :  either  to  abandon  our  hunt,  or  to  sit  down 
where  we  were  in  the  hope  that  the  rams  would  run 
over  to  another  peak  where  a  stalk  would  be  pos- 
sible; we  sat  down  to  play  a  waiting  game  with  the 
sheep.  While  these  rams  held  us  inactive,  the 
writer  amused  himself  by  counting  the  sheep  on  the 
mountain  slopes  across  the  river,  on  the  same  side 
as  our  willow-patch  camp  and  about  three  miles 
above  it.  There  was  not  a  ram  among  the  band 
that  dotted  the  slopes,  but  counting  them  singly, 
that  is:  "one,  two,  three,  etc.,'^  and  not  guessing, 
the  writer  had  reached  five  hundred  and  thirty-one 
ewes  and  lambs  when  he  decided  to  stop  counting, 
as  other  bands  began  to  come  over  the  snow  crests 
and  swell  the  multitude. 

After  two  hours'  waiting  the  rams  disappeared 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      107 

over  the  pinnacle  above,  and  we  imniediately  started 
to  climb,  reaching  the  top  at  2.00  p.m.,  when  we  sat 
down  to  eat  our  lunch  of  hard-tack  and  cold  sheep 
meat.  The  other  side  of  the  mountain  sloped 
down  a  number  of  thousand  feet  and  then  dropped 
into  a  canyon,  across  which  were  lower  tundra- 
covered  mountains,  on  which  we  picked  out  two  fine 
rams  one  mile  away.  The  writer,  with  Dixon,  de- 
cided to  go  after  the  band  of  seven  rams  we  had 
seen  in  the  morning,  but  were  now  hidden  by  an  in- 
tervening ridge,  while  Hoyt  and  the  Indian  went 
after  the  two  rams  on  the  tundra ;  and  wishing  each 
other  *'  good  luck  '*  we  started  on  our  separate 
courses.  The  writer's  stalk  lay  along  a  knife-blade 
ridge  of  the  mountain  where  the  cold  wind  blew  a 
gale  and  where  we  made  our  way  slowly  across  the 
faces  of  pinnacles  that  could  not  be  climbed.  The 
game  was  located  resting  on  another  peak,  separated 
from  our  ridge  by  an  abyss  thousands  of  feet  deep 
but  only  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  yards  across; 
at  the  edge  we  paused  and  examined  the  rams  with 
our  glasses,  which  disclosed  one  large  head  with  per- 
fect horns,  the  other  heads  being  smaller,  and  sev- 
eral with  broomed  or  broken  points.  Just  below 
the  slight  rise  at  the  edge  of  the  gorge  separating  us 
from  the  rams  the  writer  focused  his  camera  and 
placed  it  within  reach,  and  then  took  careful  aim 
with  rifle  at  the  chosen  ram  resting  on  the  top  of  the 
peak.     A  single  shot  ranging  through  behind  the 


io8      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

shoulder  caused  the  instant  demise  of  the  ram,  but, 
relaxing,  he  pitched  forward  and  slid  out  of  sight, 
thousands  of  feet  down  the  gorge.  The  other  rams 
alarmed  by  the  shot  stood  a  moment  like  wonder- 
fully posed  statues  on  the  sky  line  and  their  photo- 
graph was  taken  as  they  stood  thus,  while  a  second 
photograph  was  immediately  made  as  they  dashed 
down  the  mountain  in  full  flight.^  Dixon  went 
down  the  gorge  to  skin  out  the  ram's  head,  but  on 
reaching  the  animal  found  one  of  the  horns  had 
been  broken  off  eight  inches  in  the  fall,  making  the 
head  useless  as  a  trophy;  but  taking  some  of  the 
meat  he  climbed  back  to  the  writer,  and  we  sat  down 
on  the  ridge  to  watch  Hoyt  and  the  Indian,  who 
were  slowly  climbing  down  to  the  bottom  of  the 
gorge. 

It  is  not  often  that  one  has  the  opportunity  while 
hunting  of  watching  another  conduct  a  stalk  and  the 
stalk  of  which  we  were  spectators  was  unusually  in- 
teresting. As  Hoyt  and  the  Indian  reached  the 
bottom  of  the  canyon  we  focused  our  ten-power 
binoculars  upon  them  and  continued  to  look  with 
growing  interest  and  admiration  as  they  began  to 
climb  the  almost  perpendicular  walls  on  the  other 

^The  writer  regrets  he  Is  unable  to  show  this  picture  taken 
under  most  favorable  conditions  and  with  perfect  light;  but  this 
photograph  with  a  number  of  others  was  utterly  ruined  later  when 
the  boat  crossing  the  Shims  River  sank,  with  all  the  writer's  ex- 
posed films.  In  view  of  the  mishap  the  writer  is  particularly 
fortunate  to  preserve  any  portion  of  the  photographic  record. 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       109 

side,  as  it  seemed  an  impossible  task.  The  Indian 
was  picking  the  course  which  ran  diagonally  upward 
across  the  face  of  the  rock  and  their  going  was  slow, 
with  frequent  pauses  for  rest;  often  they  made  their 
way  horizontally  across  the  perilous  rock  faces  only 
to  change  again  at  favorable  points  to  the  upward 
diagonal,  until  at  last  they  came  out  of  the  canyon 
on  the  tundra. 

A  stalk  of  three  hundred  yards  behind  a  low  ridge 
brought  them  within  seventy-five  yards  of  the  two 
rams,  the  largest  of  which  Hoyt  selected  and  began 
to  shoot.  There  were  two  shots,  both  wide  of  the 
mark,  before  the  ram  started  to  run,  then  three  more 
complete  misses,  and  while  Hoyt  slipped  in  a  fresh 
cartridge  clip,  the  Indian  ran  to  head  the  game  to- 
wards the  canyon,  while  Hoyt  ran  a  short  distance 
and  missed  five  more  shots.  The  ram  started  for 
the  canyon  and  came  down  the  side  and  started  up- 
wards towards  the  ridge  where  the  writer  and  Dixon 
had  reserved  seats,  and  a  moment  later  Hoyt  ap- 
peared at  the  edge  of  the  canyon  and  missed  five 
more  shots.  The  ram  went  forward  a  short  dis- 
tance and  stood  for  a  moment  before  starting  up 
the  slope;  again  Hoyt  shot,  breaking  a  leg,  another 
shot  went  through  the  hind  quarter,  and  the  last 
and  eighteenth  shot  crashed  through  behind  the 
shoulder  and  killed. 

We  did  not  wait  for  them  to  dress  the  animal,  but 
went  dov/n  the  mountain  towards  our  horses,  and 


no      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

there  met  Hoyt  and  the  Indian,  bringing  in  the 
head,  which  is  not  so  large  as  Hoyt's  ram  of  yes- 
terday, though  it  is  a  fair  size;  the  horns  are  un- 
broken, though  not  quite  symmetrical,  as  the  tip 
of  one  curves  outward  while  the  other  curves  inward. 
Hoyt  was  much  disturbed  over  what  he  calls  **  rot- 
ten shooting,"  which  was  the  more  peculiar  because 
he  is  really  a  very  good  shot,  but  Dixon  discovered 
that  the  gun-sight  had  been  knocked  out  of  place 
and  Hoyt  is  slowly  recovering  his  confidence. 

It  began  to  hail  on  the  mountain  top  before  we 
left,  and  as  we  came  to  the  horses  the  snow  was 
falling  heavily  on  the  slopes  and  it  was  raining  in 
the  valley  as  we  crossed  over  to  our  willow  patch. 
After  an  extensive  hunt  for  willow  sticks  for  fire- 
wood, we  gathered  enough  for  our  evening  cook- 
fire  and  for  breakfast  to-morrow.  We  also  strung 
up  a  five-foot-wide  strip  of  canvas  between  two  sticks 
for  a  shelter  and  have  elongated  our  makeshift  tent 
by  adding  horse  blanket  at  one  end  and  a  rain  coat 
at  foot;  the  result  is  not  promising,  but  is  the  best 
our  advanced  position  affords.  We  dined  on  tea, 
hardtack  soaked  in  hot  grease,  and  many  pounds 
of  sheep  meat,  and  had  hardly  concluded  when  the 
rain  turned  to  snow;  at  first  the  flakes  were  small, 
but  grew  larger  until  they  were  about  the  size  of  a 
silver  dollar,  quickly  covering  the  ground  and  driv- 
ing down  upon  us  with  blizzard  intensity,  driving  us 
to  our  make-shift  shelter. 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      iii 

September  /.  We  spent  a  sleepless  but  rather 
amusing  night  in  our  crazy  shelter,  as  the  blizzard 
increased  in  power  and  the  snow  caused  our  piece 
of  canvas  to  sag  under  the  constantly  increasing 
weight.  At  intervals  of  about  fifteen  minutes  one 
of  us  would  strike  the  sides  of  the  canvas  to  relieve 
the  weight  and  we  kept  this  up  all  night,  with  the 
result  that  the  accumulation  of  snow  at  the  sides 
half  buried  us.  In  the  morning  we  dug  ourselves 
out  of  the  shelter,  to  find  the  country  covered  with 
two  feet  of  snow  on  the  lowest  levels,  with  still 
greater  depths  as  we  rose  above  the  river  bottoms. 
Everything  was  frozen  tight  and  blanketed  with  the 
white  mantle ;  our  saddles  had  disappeared ;  our  wil- 
low firewood,  kettle,  frying  pan,  and  grub  supply 
were  all  lost  in  the  white  drift,  and  we  kicked  around 
for  some  time  kneedeep  in  the  snow  before  we  lo- 
cated and  fished  up  our  outfit. 

We  then  discovered  that  our  horses  had  even  left 
us  in  the  lurch,  and  as  this  was  a  serious  predicament 
the  Indian  immediately  took  up  their  nearly  ob- 
literated trail  and  found  them  huddled  in  a  canyon 
to  keep  out  of  the  wind.  After  bringing  in  the  ani- 
mals we  managed  to  coax  our  willow  fire  into  a  flame 
with  the  aid  of  chunks  of  sheep  fat,  and  finally  sat 
down  on  our  saddles  for  a  respectable  breakfast. 
As  we  were  eating,  the  storm  began  to  moderate 
and,  between  gulps  of  hot  tea,  Dixon  managed  to 
tell  us  that  he  thought  he  saw  a  large  caribou  stand- 


112      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

ing  on  a  peak  on  our  side  of  the  creek  and  three 
miles  up  the  valley;  we  saw  what  he  had  in  mind,  but 
it  looked  more  like  a  rock  pinnacle  covered  with 
snow  and  half  veiled  with  the  skirts  of  the  storm 
drawing  off  across  the  mountains,  so  we  paid  no 
attention  to  the  object,  except  to  remark  that  '*  a 
caribou  must  be  entirely  crazy  to  take  the  air  at 
such  a  height  on  a  morning  like  this.'' 

Our  morning  meal  was  finished  just  about  the  time 
the  sky  cleared,  and  the  sun  glared  down  upon  the 
snowbound  scene.  The  writer,  with  some  curiosity 
about  Dixon's  caribou  that  displayed  a  taste  for  icy 
pinnacles,  turned  his  glasses  upon  the  spot  and  saw 
that  the  so-called  caribou  was  a  magnificent  old  ram, 
who  was  evidently  considering  the  question  of  where 
he  should  go  to  dig  through  the  drift  for  his  morn- 
ing meal.  On  lookfng  up  the  creek  bottom  land  the 
glasses  disclosed  a  herd  of  twenty-four  caribou  about 
six  miles  off,  with  one  big  bull  coming  down  from 
the  mountains  at  the  head  of  the  glacier,  moving 
in  our  direction  to  a  less  arctic  and  altitudinous 
range  for  the  winter.  The  writer  with  the  Indian 
decided  to  go  after  the  big  ram  and  to  pass  up  the 
caribou,  while  Hoyt  and  Dixon  would  pack  up  the 
outfit,  saddle  the  horses,  then  wait  for  the  caribou 
to  co'me  along  to  be  killed,  after  which  they  would 
move  camp  as  far  into  the  heart  of  the  range  as  the 
last  willows. 

We  started  afoot  for  the  ram,  traveling  up  the 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      113 

side  of  a  low  tundra-covered  mountain,  but  making 
very  slow  progress  as  the  snow  was  two  feet  deep 
and  became  deeper  as  we  ascended,  while  the  tundra 
beneath  the  snow  was  wet  and  boggy  so  we  wallowed 
along  nearly  waist  deep  in  the  mire  beneath  and 
the  wet  snow  covering.  The  temperature  was 
nearly  zero  and  there  was  a  slight  crust  on  the  snow, 
but  in  spite  of  the  cold  and  with  only  our  hunting 
shirt  and  no  coat  or  sweater  we  were  wet  with  per- 
spiration: the  glare  of  the  unclouded  sun  upon  the 
unbroken  whiteness  would  have  been  unendurable 
except  for  our  snow  glasses.  As  we  went  forward 
and  upward  we  noticed  the  ram  come  down  from  the 
peak  and  begin  to  dig  through  the  drift  for  his  break- 
fast, while  the  caribou  herd  in  the  bottom  land  was 
coming  in  our  direction.  When  we  were  half  a 
mile  down  the  range  from  the  ram  and  at  a  level 
of  one  thousand  feet  below  him,  the  old  fellow 
stopped  feeding  and  looked  In  our  direction  and  as 
we  loomed  black  against  the  white  background,  we 
sat  down  In  the  snow  in  order  to  convince  that  ram 
we  were  rocks  and  not  animated  beings.  The  per- 
sistent creature  continued  to  gaze  at  us  and  there 
was  nothing  for  us  but  to  sit  in  the  snow  and  shiver 
and  swear  as  the  Intense  cold  struck  through  our 
garments,  dripping  with  perspiration  which  made 
our  teeth  chatter  and  our  knees  shake  with  a  real 
chill. 

As  we  sat  there  helpless,  the  caribou  herd  came 


114      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

along  below  us,  twenty-four  beautiful  animals,  bulls, 
cows,  and  calves,  showing  black  against  the  snow, 
only  a  hundred  yards  away.  Our  watchful  sheep 
began  to  occupy  himself  with  the  study  of  animal 
life  In  the  Yukon  and  was  particularly  intent  upon 
observing  this  herd  of  caribou,  but  as  we  were  di- 
rectly In  the  line  of  vision  between  him  and  the 
herd  we  continued  to  sit  still  and  shiver  and  to  ob- 
serve the  caribou  ourselves,  after  first  taking  the 
picture  of  the  herd  strung  out  on  the  snow  fields  be- 
low us.  The  old  bull  was  a  fine  old  specimen,  but 
he  certainly  had  his  hands  full;  one  moment  he 
would  rush  to  the  head  of  the  column  to  keep  the 
leader  on  the  course  he  had  decided  must  be  fol- 
lowed; then  he  would  rush  back  and  herd  the  rest 
of  the  animals  Into  a  bunch,  so  they  would  not  be 
strung  out  too  far,  and  would  threaten  with  lowered 
head  the  younger  bulls  that  came  too  near  the  cows, 
or  dash  at  a  calf  that  straggled  a  bit.  The  old  fel- 
low had  a  large  contract  to  run  that  herd,  but  he  was 
wonderfully  active  and  one  hundred  per  cent,  effi- 
cient, and  it  really  seemed  a  pity  to  think  he  was 
going  to  die,  for  looking  down  the  bottoms  we  could 
see  Hoyt  waiting  for  the  bull. 

My  ram  continued  to  gaze  past  us  at  the  herd,  so 
we  continued  to  sit  tight  and  not  move.  The  herd 
moved  down  opposite  our  camp,  and  we  saw  Hoyt's 
Mauser  belch  flame  three  times  as  he  put  an  end 
to  the  activities  of  the  caribou  at  one  hundred  and 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       115 

fifty  yards.  Still  the  ram  continued  his  study  of 
migrating  caribou  and  still  we  sat  upon  our  icy 
perch,  until  the  herd  had  passed  five  miles  below  us; 
that  ram  had  with  his  curiosity  held  us  prisoners  for 
exactly  two  hours  and  we  were  nearly  frozen. 
When  he  finally  turned  his  gaze  away,  we  leaped 
from  our  snowy  couch  and  dashed  down-hill  under 
the  brow  for  half  a  mile  and  then  started  up  a  gulch, 
with  the  purpose  of  climbing  above  the  ram  and 
coming  out  a  hundred  yards  to  the  leeward  of  him. 
About  five  hundred  feet  from  the  top  of  the  bench 
where  we  had  last  seen  him  feeding  we  were  wallow- 
ing waist  deep  through  the  snow,  sweating  and  pant- 
ing, when  above  us  the  old  fellow  looked  down  and 
then  vanished.  We  forgot  fatigue  and  ran  straight 
up  the  mountain  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards,  plowing 
through  the  snow,  and  as  we  reached  the  brow  there 
stood  the  ram,  broadside  two  hundred  and  fifty 
yards  away,  looking  at  us.  My  heart  was  racing 
like  a  runaway  engine,  my  breath  came  In  gasps,  and 
I  was  shaking  like  an  aspen  under  the  terrific  strain 
of  the  climb  and  that  final  spurt;  the  rifle  came  to 
my  shoulder,  but  it  wavered  and  trembled  all  over 
the  mountain  at  every  spot  except  on  the  mark:  I 
lowered  the  rifle.  The  Indian  beside  me  was  In- 
dulging in  queer  rites,  shaking  his  head  from  side 
to  side  and  working  his  mouth  with  a  very  obvious 
chewing  movement;  he  whispered:  "  Me  fool  him 
sheep,  think  me  caribou."     Again  the  rifle  came  to 


ii6      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

my  shoulder,  though  I  was  still  trembling  too  much 
for  a  fair  aim,  but  the  ram  was  about  to  jump  so  I 
shot  twice  and  missed  both  times.  The  sheep  ran  a 
hundred  yards  farther  and  at  the  base  of  a  sharp 
incline  just  below  the  summit  paused  for  a  final  look; 
which  was  a  fatal  pause,  as  my  breathing  had  be- 
come steady  and  the  trembling  spell  was  gone.  One 
shot  at  three  hundred  yards  was  all  that  was  neces- 
sary, as  my  bullet  ranged  through  the  heart  and  the 
ram  was  dead. 

As  we  plowed  our  way  over  to  the  sheep,  Albert 
became  very  loquacious  and  tried  to  flatter  me  with 
the  honeyed  words:  "  Him  shoot  same  like  Injun, 
kill  'em  far,  kill  'em  quick,  just  one  time  shoot " ; 
but  I  mildly  suggested  to  Albert  that,  "  I  had  made 
two  nice  misses  at  very  much  closer  range  just  a 
moment  earlier,"  to  which  he  replied:  "All  same 
Injun  fast  beat  him  heart,  no  get  him  wind,  no  good 
shoot."  Albert  insisted  that  I  take  off  my  glasses 
and  sit  down  in  the  snow  and  shiver  while  he  takes 
a  picture  of  **  dam  fool  sheep,  come  feed  in  snow ; 
damfool  hunter,  like  climb  mountain  in  snow  "  (the 
photograph  is  submitted  in  evidence  as  an  admission 
of  the  Indian's  point  of  view).  The  gentle  savage 
intended  this  doubtful  language  as  a  compliment  to 
the  writer  and  not  at  all  as  an  expression  of  con- 
tempt, but  his  vocabulary  is  quite  circumscribed  and 
his  words  have  to  be  interpreted  by  an  understand- 
ing of  what  he  means  rather  than  what  he  says,  and 


I.  A  RARE  AND  PERFECT  TROPHY. 
2.  WILLOW  PATCH  CAMP.     ALTITUDE  5,S00  FEET. 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       117 

the  real  meaning  is  arrived  at  by  a  consideration  of 
his  friendly  smile. 

The  head  was  quite  perfect  from  the  base  of  the 
horn  to  the  very  tips,  fourteen  inches  in  circumfer- 
ence at  base,  thirty-four  inches  in  length,  and  twenty- 
three  inches  wide,  closely  curled  and  of  perfect  sym- 
metry; the  age  of  the  ram  was  eight  years. 

After  skinning  out  the  head  we  packed  it  down 
the  mountain,  sliding  and  sHpping  in  the  drifts,  and 
at  the  bottom  Hoyt  left  the  pack  train  traveling  up 
the  valley  and  brought  a  horse  for  us  to  use  as  a 
ferry  in  crossing  the  several  branches  of  the  river. 
Making  our  crossing,  we  followed  along  Dixon's 
snow  trail  a  number  of  miles  up  and  camped  at  noon 
at  the  last  willow  patch  in  the  heart  of  the  range. 
When  I  say  "  we  camped,"  I  do  not  mean  that  we 
put  up  a  tent  or  shelter,  as  we  had  no  tent  and  there 
were  no  sticks  to  erect  a  shelter,  but  simply  mean 
that  this  willow  patch,  at  an  altitude  of  fifty-eight 
hundred  feet  in  a  slight  hollow,  was  the  place  where 
our  horses  might  feed,  and  we  would  gather  small 
sticks  for  a  cook  fire,  while  at  night  we  would  spread 
out  our  sleeping  robes  in  the  snow  and  use  the 
heavens  for  a  tent.  A  more  beautiful,  majestic,  and 
wild  panorama  never  faced  a  camera  than  the  over- 
whelming wilderness  of  towering  crystalled  white- 
ness that  surrounded  us  on  every  side. 

We  had  lunch  at  this  "  camp  "  and  saddling  our 
horses  started  to  plow  our  way  through  the  snow. 


ii8      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

following  a  course  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains 
until  we  had  made  five  miles,  where  wc  dismounted 
to  examine  the  slopes  with  glasses.  Across  a  can- 
yon were  many  sheep  feeding  on  scattered  and  small 
willow  bushes  low  down  at  the  base  of  the  moun- 
tains, but  they  were  all  ewe  sheep,  so  we  decided  to 
travel  farther  into  the  range  and  look  for  rams. 
At  the  canyon  we  dismounted  and  led  our  horses 
down  the  steep  walls  to  the  bottom  and  then  up  the 
other  side.  The  canyon  bottom  is  the  lowest  point 
In  the  range  and  here  were  found  scattered  patches 
of  four-feet-high  willows.  Countless  paths,  plowed 
down  from  the  mountains  to  these  willow  patches, 
showed  where  the  sheep  in  the  morning,  unable  to 
paw  through  the  deep  snow  on  the  slopes  for  feed, 
had  come  down  to  the  very  bottoms  of  the  canyon 
to  browse  on  willows. 

It  is  at  this  season  of  the  year,  when  the  sheep 
come  down  to  the  canyons  to  feed,  that  the  grizzlies 
hunt  for  sheep,  as  the  bears  lurk  in  the  canyons  and 
stalk  the  sheep  as  they  feed  upon  the  willows. 

By  scanning  the  back  trails  from  the  canyon  to 
the  peaks  we  were  able  to  observe  where  the  sheep 
had  returned  to  the  crags  and  passed  over  the  sum- 
mits for  the  night.  After  riding  along  the  top  of 
the  canyon  for  several  miles  and  tracing  numerous 
trails  disappearing  across  the  range,  we  found  one 
trail  winding  along  the  crags  but  not  leading  to  the 
top;  minute  examination  revealed  a  band  of  seven 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       119 

rams,  whose  color  nearly  merged  with  the  snow  back- 
ground resting  on  a  shelf  three-fourths  of  the  way 
up  the  mountain.  We  looked  over  their  horns 
carefully  and  found  two  very  large  and  perfect 
heads,  but  as  the  hour  was  too  late  to  begin  a  stalk, 
we  decided  to  try  for  them  in  the  morning  and 
started  back  to  camp.  It  was  bitter  cold  and  our 
boots  were  frozen  stiff  as  we  rode  toward  our  base ; 
at  intervals  we  walked  in  order  to  keep  warm,  only 
to  get  into  the  saddle  again  after  plowing  our  way 
on  foot  through  the  heavy  snow. 

About  five  o'clock  we  reached  the  willow  patch, 
unsaddled  the  horses,  placed  bells  around  their 
necks,  and  turned  them  loose  without  hobbles,  as  it 
was  necessary  to  leave  them  unhampered  to  paw 
down  through  the  snow  for  such  scanty  feed  as  they 
might  be  able  to  discover.  We  put  on  our  parkies 
with  their  fur-edged  hoods,  as  the  increasing  cold 
gripped  us,  and  with  a  fire  of  willow  sticks  and  sheep 
fat  managed  to  cook  an  evening  meal;  after  which 
we  sat  in  the  snow  with  our  boots  almost  against  the 
small  bed  of  coals  and  warmed  and  thawed  out  our 
boots.  The  clear,  still  Arctic  night  came  down 
upon  our  pitiful  camp;  the  jeweled  lights  of  the 
heavens  seemed  to  sparkle  from  the  night  canopy 
of  deep  blue  no  higher  than  the  white,  still  peaks 
that  engulfed  our  hollow,  as  we  looked  upon  the 
firmament  from  our  eiderdown  sleeping  robes 
stretched  upon  the  frozen  couch  of  snow. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

**  Wild  and  wide  are  my  borders,  stern  as  death  is  my  sway ; 
From  my  ruthless  throne  I  have  ruled  alone  for  a  million 
years  and  a  day." 

September  2.  Had  a  very  comfortable  night  in 
spite  of  the  low  temperature,  as  with  our  eiderdown 
robes  rolled  around  us  on  the  snow  were  as  warm 
as  one  could  wish.  Everything  was  frozen  solid 
this  morning,  from  our  boots  to  the  tea  pail,  but  a 
modest  willow  fire  thawed  out  both  of  these  neces- 
sary items  of  equipment,  and  after  breakfast  we 
brought  the  horses  from  a  canyon,  whither  they  had 
sought  shelter  during  the  night,  and  saddled  up  for 
a  journey  after  the  rams  we  had  located  late  yester- 
day afternoon.  My  horse,  Bobby,  has  a  white 
nose,  and  this  morning  his  muzzle  was  raw  and  sore 
in  a  number  of  places,  due  to  a  combination  of  sun- 
bum  from  the  glare  on  the  snow  and  a  chapping 
effect  of  the  cold  and  wind,  causing  the  muzzle  to 
crack  open;  only  blond-faced  horses  are  thus  affected, 
as  the  dark-muzzled  animals  never  have  these  raw 
sores.  I  gave  Bobby's  face  a  coating  of  vaseline, 
which  he   seemed   to   appreciate,    and  we   started 

120 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      121 

across  the  glaring  snow-crust  for  sheep  range, 
circhng  around  the  base  of  the  mountains. 

Five  miles  into  the  sea  of  peaks  above  our  camp 
we  saw  a  herd  of  thirty-four  caribou  that  had  been 
summering  in  the  high  altitudes,  but  were  now 
driven  out  by  the  winter  and  were  on  the  march  to 
lower  levels.  There  were  cows,  calves,  and  small 
bulls,  in  charge  and  under  the  strict  domination  of 
a  fine  old  bull  with  a  big  head,  which  we  decided  not 
to  shoot  for  fear  of  alarming  the  sheep  that  might 
be  within  hearing  distance.  We  were  quite  content 
to  watch  the  old  patriarch  manage  his  large  family: 
we  saw  him  lead  the  way  to  a  small  willow  patch, 
and  after  his  flock  had  browsed  a  few  minutes  he 
deliberately  drove  them  away  and  headed  them 
down  the  valley  towards  us,  rushing  first  on  one 
side,  then  on  the  other,  and  finally  at  the  rear  of 
the  column,  trying  to  keep  his  charges  from  strag- 
gling or  wandering  off  the  course. 

When  the  caribou  saw  us  at  about  two  hundred 
yards  they  started  to  stampede  in  different  courses, 
but  the  old  bull  ran  to  the  head  of  the  column  and 
changed  the  leader's  course,  and  utterly  regardless 
of  his  own  danger  from  us  he  rushed  about,  herding 
the  animals  in  the  way  he  had  selected,  and  was  him- 
self the  last  to  follow;  and  as  the  flying  band  van- 
ished around  a  low  ridge  the  old  fellow  was  charg- 
ing a  few  smaller  bulls  from  behind,  driving  them 
forward  to  make  a  compact  formation. 


122      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

We  rode  on  through  the  snow  fields,  seeing  many 
ewes  across  the  canyon,  until  we  could  observe  the 
ledge  on  which  we  had  located  sheep  the  previous 
day.  The  rams  had  evidently  been  feeding  below 
and  had  returned  to  the  ledge,  where  they  were  rest- 
ing in  the  snow,  so  we  looked  them  over  with  the 
glasses  and  found  the  two  with  the  large  heads. 

It  was  impossible  to  stalk  them  in  plain  sight  from 
below,  but  it  was  an  ideal  situation  to.  climb  a  ridge 
on  their  flank  to  the  dizzy  heights  and  then  stalk 
down  upon  them  from  above ;  that  is,  it  might  have 
been  ideal  but  for  a  single  factor  which  made  it  im- 
possible, for  the  wary  band  had  posted  a  sentinel 
ram  far  out  on  a  point  about  six  hundred  yards  from 
the  resting  sheep,  and  this  sentinel  not  only  had  us 
in  full  view,  but  had  an  unobstructed  view  of  the 
ridge  by  which  we  purposed  to  climb  above  his  com- 
panions. 

Our  plan  of  action,  therefore,  resolved  itself  into 
"  anxious,  wishful,  watchful  waiting,"  as  we  sat 
down  in  the  snow  with  the  purpose  of  closely  imi- 
tating the  immobility  of  rocks.  As  we  sat  there 
two  small  rams  came  down  from  the  mountains  be- 
hind us  and  at  close  range  crossed  over  the  valley, 
down  the  canyon,  and  over  to  another  range.  It 
took  until  noon  for  that  sentinel  ram  to  become  con- 
vinced we  were  really  rocks,  or  perhaps  his  appetite 
gained  supremacy  over  his  duty  as  guard,  but  after 
standing  guard  for  nearly  three  hours  he  descended 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       123 

toward  the  canyon  and  our  line  of  assault  was  open. 

Leading  the  horses  and  dodging  behind  low 
ridges  we  came  to  the  bottom  of  the  slope,  and, 
tethering  our  mounts  in  a  deep  gulch  between  two 
ascending  ridges,  began  our  climb  up  the  heights. 
The  lower  slope  was  hard  going,  as  the  snow  was 
deep  and  we  were  continually  falling  down  and 
floundering  around  in  the  drift;  the  best  we  could 
do  was  to  ascend  about  two  hundred  feet  and  then 
rest  a  few  minutes  to  recover  enough  wind  to  con- 
tinue; we  panted  and  perspired  under  the  strain  of 
that  ascent,  like  Arabs  crossing  the  burning  sands 
of  the  Sahara  instead  of  hunters  daring  the  icy 
heights.  The  higher  we  climbed  the  more  abrupt 
became  the  ascent  and,  as  we  were  frequently  slip- 
ping and  slipping  was  dangerous,  we  went  onward 
and  upward  at  a  snaiFs  pace,  using  the  butt  of  the 
gun  for  Alpine  stock  and  trying  the  footing  a  step 
ahead  before  taking  our  weight  off  the  rear  foot. 

The  last  stretch  was  one  of  those  straight-up  in- 
ventions of  the  devil,  where  one  digs  his  fingers 
through  the  snow  for  a  grip  on  the  sharp  rocks  and 
then  feels  around  with  his  toes  for  a  solid  rock  foot- 
ing a  little  higher  than  his  previous  footing;  some- 
times we  could  not  continue  up,  but  had  to  climb 
directly  across  the  face  of  the  cliff-like  top  to  reach 
a  more  favorable  point  of  ascent.  No  one  ever 
thinks  of  looking  back  in  a  situation  of  this  sort,  for 
to  look  anywhere  except  directly  ahead  is  utter  folly ; 


124      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

indeed,  you  do  not  think  about  anything  else  except 
that  next  finger  hold  and  step  you  are  going  to  take, 
and  the  danger  of  it  all  never  enters  your  mind  as 
you  concentrate  on  your  next  move  and  do  not  con- 
sider possibilities. 

At  last  we  pulled  ourselves  to  the  knife-blade 
ridge  cutting  the  sky,  where  the  wind  blew  cold  and 
where  the  ridge  we  must  cross  was  less  than  eight 
inches  wide,  covered  with  snow  and  dropping  down 
thousands  of  feet,  whose  magnificent  depth  we  did 
not  even  momentarily  observe,  as  that  eight-inch 
ridge  led  up  to  safe  and  sane  footing.  As  we  knew 
not  whether  the  edge  beneath  the  snow  was  loose 
rock,  or  slippery  soil,  we  made  haste  very  slowly, 
advancing  and  balancing  along  the  icy  sky  line  like 
puppets  in  some  outlandish  show;  sometimes  the 
snow  and  rocks  displaced  by  our  footing  would  slide 
into  the  abyss  on  either  side,  but  it  was  not  a  subject 
for  thought  at  the  time  though  the  subconscious 
mind  evidently  made  note  of  it. 

At  last  we  reached  a  flat  top  and  began  to  remem- 
ber the  ahnost  forgotten  sheep,  as  we  went  rapidly 
forward  for  nearly  a  mile,  until  we  decided  the 
sheep  must  be  almost  directly  below.  A  projecting 
ledge  obstructed  our  downward  view,  so  we  went 
down  a  ridge  to  get  a  clear  view,  only  to  find  the 
sheep  had  moved.  Even  as  we  looked  the  band 
came  into  view  two  hundred  yards  away,  traveling 
in  the  same  direction  as  we  were  going,  paralleling 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      125 

our  course  on  a  lower  level,  but  with  the  evident 
intention  of  coming  to  the  top. 

Hoyt  fired  once  and  missed,  and  the  band  was  off 
at  a  gallop,  while  we  stampeded  up  the  ridge  and 
then  ran  a  half  mile  along  the  summit  in  order  to 
head  off  the  rams  as  they  came  to  the  sky  line.  The 
sheep,  however,  in  single  file  plunged  through  the 
snow,  topped  the  summit  far  ahead  of  us,  and 
Dixon,  looking  through  the  glasses,  called  out  the 
second  ram  as  a  big  head,  which  the  writer  by  a 
lucky  shot  wounded  In  the  shoulder  at  four  hundred 
yards.  A  moment  later  Hoyt  wounded  the  other 
big  ram  at  four  hundred  and  fifty  yards,  and  we 
both  wasted  a  number  of  futile  shots  at  the  rest  of 
the  band  as  they  vanished  over  the  crest,  after  which 
we  each  took  the  red  trail  left  by  our  stricken  game, 
as  the  rams  made  their  way  down  the  mountain. 
Albert  and  the  writer  watched  Hoyt  with  Dixon  go 
after  Hoyt's  wounded  ram  and  a  mile  away  saw 
Hoyt's  rifle  flash  the  finishing  shot,  when  we  turned 
to  follow  the  descending  trail  of  my  ram.  At  sev- 
eral places  the  animal  had  laid  down  to  rest  and  had 
been  eating  snow,  but  we  traveled  over  a  mile  and 
had  reached  a  level  only  a  thousand  feet  above  the 
base  of  the  mountain,  when  we  came  upon  the  sheep 
standing  in  a  little  draw. 

With  one  shot  I  put  him  out  of  his  misery,  and 
we  proceeded  at  once  to  examine  him  carefully. 
The  specimen  was  really  a  rare  trophy,  the  horns 


126      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

being  very  massive  and  absolutely  symmetrical,  with 
perfect  points  unbroken  and  unbroomed.  The  cir- 
cumference of  horns  at  base  as  we  put  the  steel  tape 
around  was  fifteen  inches,  the  outside  curl  of  each 
horn  showed  a  length  of  thirty-seven  inches,  while 
the  width  between  the  horns  was  twenty- four  inches ; 
the  annular  rings  revealed  his  age  as  eight  years. 

As  it  was  three  oVlock  in  the  afternoon  and  we 
had  spent  a  strenuous  morning  since  our  five  o'clock 
breakfast,  we  sat  down  to  a  lunch  of  hardtack,  cold 
sheep  meat,  and  raisins,  after  first  taking  stock  of 
my  ammunition  and  discovering  all  that  I  had  was 
the  single  cartridge  in  the  chamber  of  my  rifle. 
Luncheon  was  proceeding  nicely  with  appropriate 
hunting  talk  between  the  savage  and  myself  and  we 
had  nearly  reached  the  raisin  course,  when  we 
looked  down  the  slope  and  there  beheld  eight  fine 
rams  only  two  hundred  yards  below  us  that  had 
come  out  of  the  canyon  and  had  crossed  our  front, 
and  at  full  speed  were  going  over  a  ridge  that  led 
up  to  us.  I  grabbed  the  rifle  and  the  Indian 
grabbed  the  glasses,  and  we  both  rushed  to  the  crest 
of  the  ridge  a  hundred  feet  away.  Albert  called 
out,  "  Shoot  him  big  sheep,  two  back  from  leader  " 
(meaning  the  third  sheep),  and  my  last  shot  crashed 
toward  the  three-hundred-yard  distant  ram,  which 
gave  a  slight  jump  as  It  continued  with  unabated 
speed  and  topped  a  rise  twenty  feet  ahead  of  it  and 
disappeared,  followed  by  the  other  five  rams. 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       127 

I  supposed,  as  a  matter  of  course,  my  shot  had 
gone  wide  of  the  mark,  so  without  comment  Albert 
and  myself  went  back  to  our  raisin  course.  We  had 
just  finished  that  and  were  about  to  skin  out  the 
dead  ram  beside  us,  when  twelve  more  rams  with 
magnificent  heads  came  out  of  the  canyon  and  ap- 
proached within  two  hundred  yards  before  they  dis- 
covered us.  Having  no  more  ammunition,  we 
simply  watched  them  while  they  rambled  off  at  an 
unhurried  pace,  and  then  turned  our  attention  to 
dressing  our  neglected  ram. 

I  said  to  Albert,  *'  Rather  rotten  luck  to  be  out 
of  cartridges  with  such  fine  rams  coming  right  up 
to  be  killed  without  doing  any  climbing  after  them; 
and,  besides,  I  really  wanted  a  third  head."  Albert 
stopped  his  skinning  operation,  lighted  his  pipe,  and 
said:  "You  speak  him  same  thing,"  so  I  was 
obliged  to  repeat  my  observation.  The  Indian  be- 
gan to  count  on  his  fingers  and,  holding  up  three 
brown  digits  for  my  inspection,  informed  me: 
"  Him  kill  one  ram  big  other  time,  him  kill  two 
ram  big  this  time."  I  didn't  care  to  argue  the  mat- 
ter with  the  Indian,  as  he  had  a  bad-looking  skin- 
ning knife  in  his  hand,  but  after  he  had  gone  back 
to  his  mutton  I  told  him  that  Hoyt  had  killed  the 
second  ram  back  on  the  mountain;  then  Albert  be- 
gan to  grin  and,  taking  my  arm,  led  me  to  the  place 
from  which  I  had  fired  my  last  shot  at  the  rams  that 
had  gone  over  the  ridge,  and  rather  impressively 


128      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

announced :  "  Him  shoot  him  good,  kill  him  quick, 
in  heart  shoot."  I  laughed  at  Albert,  and  told  him 
that  ram  was  five  miles  away  by  this  time  and  that 
I  saw  him  running  the  twenty  feet  to  the  ridge  just 
as  fast  as  before  I  shot;  but  Albert  only  smiled  and 
said:     "  All  same  dead." 

Taking  the  head  and  part  of  the  meat,  we  started 
in  the  direction  of  our  horses,  crossing  the  ridge 
where  the  rams  had  vanished;  there  not  five  feet 
from  the  top  of  the  ridge  lay  my  third  ram,  shot 
behind  the  shoulder  with  the  bullet  ranging  through 
the  body  and  out  the  other  side.  The  Indian 
looked  at  the  ram  and,  turning  to  me  with  an  ex- 
pression of  assurance,  remarked :  "  Look,  him 
dead  in  heart,  sometime  big  sheep  run  fast,  shoot 
him  in  heart;  all  same  run  little  bit  more,"  and  it 
was  even  so.  The  head  was  not  quite  perfect,  as 
one  horn  was  broomed  at  the  point,  making  it  an 
inch  shorter  than  the  perfect  horn;  but  I  was  glad 
to  have  it,  simply  as  showing  what  happens  to  the 
horns,  since  I  already  had  two  perfect  specimens. 
The  tape  showed  a  base  circumference  of  fifteen 
and  one-half  inches,  the  perfect  horn  length  of 
thirty-eight  inches,  and  a  spread  of  twenty-five 
inches,  while  the  annular  rings  marked  eight  years. 

While  skinning  this  ram,  Dixon  and  Hoyt  came 
up  to  us  with  Hoyt's  ram,  which  measured  fifteen 
inches  around  the  base  of  the  horn,  with  thirty-six 
inches  length,  and  twenty-seven  inches  spread,  age 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      129 

eight  years.  Like  my  last  ram,  this  one  of  Hoyt's 
has  one  horn  broomed  at  the  tip  and  an  inch  shorter 
than  the  perfect  horn.  Dixon  reported  that  a  mile 
back  he  located  twenty-four  rams  with  some  very 
large  heads,  and  urged  we  go  after  them  "  with  a 
good  chance  of  getting  a  record  head,"  but  as  Hoyt 
and  myself  each  had  three  very  fine  specimens,  we 
decided  the  entire  ram  family  might  come  up  to  us 
and  play  around  our  camp  in  perfect  security;  so 
packing  our  specimens  on  our  backs  we  climbed  up 
and  down  several  canyons  and  came  out  above  our 
horses.  At  the  edge  of  a  very  steep  slope  Hoyt's 
feet  went  out  from  under  him  and  he  slid  down 
through  the  snow  to  the  bottom,  while  the  rest  of 
us  howled  with  glee  as  he  shook  himself  out  of  the 
drift;  at  the  same  point  the  writer  absolutely  dupli- 
cated Hoyt's  amusing  performance,  after  which  we 
all  felt  better. 

Our  horses  were  a  bit  stiff  with  cold  from  long 
standing  tethered  in  the  gulch,  so  we  quickly 
mounted  and  returned  to  our  willow-patch  camp, 
where  we  turned  the  animals  loose  and  prepared  the 
evening  meal.  Since  we  have  all  the  sheep  we  de- 
sire and  in  view  of  the  scanty  horse  feed,  we  decided 
to  make  an  early  start  in  the  morning  from  this  ex- 
posed camp  and  return  to  our  main  camp  in  the  tim- 
ber on  the  St.  Clair. 

September  j.  The  horses  evidently  exhausted 
the  available  willow  feed  in  our  locality  early  during 


I30      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

the  night,  for  about  midnight  we  heard  the  tinkle  of 
their  bells  going  down  the  valley,  and  Dixon  got  up 
and  went  after  them.  An  hour  or  two  later  they 
started  down  again,  so  Albert  took  their  trail  and 
brought  them  back;  when  they  made  the  third  at- 
tempt, as  it  was  about  daylight,  we  decided  to  have 
breakfast  and  start  down  the  valley.  Our  single 
pack  animal,  loaded  with  bedding,  cook  outfit,  and 
six  big  heads  in  addition  to  Hoyt's  caribou  head, 
presented  a  rather  wonderful  appearance  with  the 
different  horns  along  his  sides  and  the  big  antlers 
rising  above  his  back. 

As  we  went  down  the  wide  river  bottom  to  lower 
levels  the  snow  became  lighter,  until  at  our  home 
camp  in  the  timber  there  was  no  snow  whatever, 
though  it  lay  deep  upon  the  low  slopes  on  either 
side.  The  big  snow  had  broken  down  several  of 
our  tents,  which  had  been  set  up  again  with  six-inch 
diameter  ridge  poles,  but  the  snow  had  entirely 
melted  about  camp,  which  presented  a  very  summery 
aspect  compared  to  our  recent  willow  patch. 

The  day  we  had  gone  up  the  left  branch  of  the 
St.  Clair,  Wolcott  with  Hayden  had  gone  up  among 
the  mountains  on  the  right  branch  and  had  hunted 
sheep.  There  were  many  ewes  and  lambs  ranging 
in  their  locality,  but  they  saw  only  several  bands  of 
rams,  one  of  which  Wolcott  killed;  the  head  was 
only  fair  size  and  not  perfect,  as  one  of  the  points 
was  broken.     When  they  crawled  out  of  the  drift 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       131 

the  morning  after  the  storm  and  beheld  everything 
buried  two  feet  deep,  they  concluded  that  sheep 
hunting  under  such  conditions  was  sport  reduced  to 
its  lowest  terms,  and  made  haste  to  leave  the  dizzy 
heights  behind,  and  returned  to  camp. 

Cutting  and  Bettle  with  Baker  went  over  the 
mountains  behind  our  camp  the  day  we  left,  and 
forced  their  way  deep  into  the  range,  where  they 
were  caught  by  the  storm  at  a  low  willow  patch. 
They  stayed  on,  however,  and  saw  a  great  many 
rams,  which  they  stalked  among  the  peaks.  This 
afternoon  they  came  down  to  the  home  camp,  bring- 
ing in  three  rams'  heads  of  fair  size,  but  imperfect, 
as  all  of  them  have  broken  points. 

Wolcott  and  Hayden  went  north  down  the  St. 
Clair  this  morning  to  look  for  moose,  and  ten  miles 
down  rode  up  the  mountains  above  timber  line, 
searching  the  valley  with  their  glasses  in  an  effort 
to  locate  the  game.  This  is  rather  difficult  hunting, 
as  it  is  almost  impossible  to  pick  out  these  animals 
in  the  thick  timber  below  by  looking  for  them  from 
above.  Late  in  the  afternoon,  however,  Hayden's 
keen  eye  located  a  bull  moose  lying  down  in  the  tim- 
ber nine  hundred  yards  away,  and  the  hunters  began 
a  difficult  stalk,  made  more  uncertain  by  the  fact 
that  when  they  had  advanced  into  the  timber  they 
no  longer  knew  exactly  where  the  moose  was  resting. 

Creeping  carefully  between  the  trees,  they  came 
within  fifty  yards  of  the  reclining  bull  before  dis- 


132      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

covering  him,  and  Wolcott  shot  him  as  he  lay  there 
and  again  as  he  got  to  his  feet,  while  three  more 
bullets  went  into  the  running  animal  before  he  was 
finished.  After  dressing  and  removing  the  head, 
they  brought  it  into  camp  about  six  o'clock.  With- 
out any  exception  this  is  the  most  beautiful  moose 
head  the  writer  has  ever  seen;  the  palms  are  not 
unusually  long,  nor  is  the  spread  of  fifty-six  inches 
remarkable,  but  the  horns  are  very  massive,  p-erfect 
in  symmetry  and  balance,  with  the  points  not  worn 
as  is  usual  with  the  larger  and  older  bulls.  The 
scalp  is  almost  black,  blending  into  brown;  the  bell 
is  six  inches  long,  but  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
in  this  country  it  is  extremely  rare  to  find  a  moose 
whose  bell  is  not  frozen  off,  leaving  a  short  beard- 
like projection. 

September  4.  We  are  all  doubtless  familiar  with 
the  lion-hunting  methods  in  vogue  in  East  Africa, 
where  many  natives  surround  a  donga  to  which  a 
lion  has  been  traced,  and  then  with  drums,  kettles, 
and  any  noise-making  implement  begin  to  advance 
through  the  donga,  making  an  unholy  racket  and 
causing  the  frightened  lion  to  leave  the  cover  and 
come  into  the  open,  where  he  is  dispatched  by  the 
hunter. 

Dixon  proposed  a  similar  plan  for  a  moose  hunt, 
which  he  calls  a  "  drive,"  and  which  seemed  to  the 
writer  to  be  an  unsportsmanlike  method  of  hunting, 
but  which,  merely  by  reason  of  its  novelty  and  to 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       133 


0»  VVMtRf   HuNTtas  OUCHTTO    OR, 
4' TORCHES, 6eiH»  fki\MiM0  T^CC^ 


.^-p' 


PiAA^  OF  MOQ^EBaiVi^ 


134      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

observe  how  it  would  work  out,  we  decided  to  try 
once.  Across  the  river  from  our  camp  was  a 
timber-covered  plateau,  rising  three  hundred  feet 
above  the  river  and  extending  back  a  mile  and  a 
half  with  an  upward  slope  to  the  top  of  the  ridge 
which  was  the  end  of  the  timber.  Six  miles  down 
the  valley  the  river  bends  to  the  west,  and  the  dis- 
tance between  the  river  and  the  ridge  narrows  down 
to  about  three  hundred  yards. 

The  plan  was  for  Dixon  with  two  others  to  ride 
across  the  plateau  to  the  top  of  the  ridge  at  timber 
line ;  Jim  Baker,  with  a  tolling  bell  tied  to  his  horse, 
was  to  go  to  a  point  half  way  between  the  top  of 
the  ridge  and  the  river  bank;  Albert  was  to  take  his 
stand  on  the  edge  of  the  plateau  just  above  the  river 
bottom;  the  hunters  were  to  be  placed  six  miles 
down  the  valley  at  the  point  marked  o  o  o,  where 
the  ridge  approached  the  river.  We  started  with 
Jack  Hayden,  who  had  misunderstood  Dixon's  di- 
rections and  placed  us  at  x  x  x,  where  the  plateau 
was  a  mile  and  a  half  wide  instead  of  only  three 
hundred  yards  wide,  where  we  should  have  taken 
our  stand. 

The  stage  being  all  set,  we  heard  a  distant  rifle 
shot  as  signal,  and  at  once,  where  Dixon  and  Albert 
were  posted  on  the  flanks  of  the  plateau,  a  standing 
dead  tree  flamed  to  the  heavens  and  then  began  to 
smoke,  while  Jim  Baker  began  to  ignite  trees  in 
between    the    flanks    held   by    Dixon    and   Albert. 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       135 

Then  the  flankers  and  Baker  began  to  move  for- 
ward, lighting  trees  every  two  hundred  yards  as  they 
progressed;  and  as  we,  who  were  to  do  the  shoot- 
ing, watched  the  flaming  torches  come  nearer,  it 
became  obvious  that  the  plan  was  absolutely  perfect 
for  the  extermination  of  moose.  But  there  were 
two  fatally  weak  points  in  its  execution  for  Baker 
had  too  much  ground  to  cover  between  the  flankers 
and  should  have  had  another  to  assist  him,  as  the 
moose  had  too  much  chance  to  break  back  before 
he  could  cover  the  ground  with  his  fires;  the  other 
weakness  lay  in  the  fact  that  the  hunters  were  placed 
in  such  a  way  that  the  moose  could  easily  circle  our 
ends  without  being  seen,  and  the  plan  worked  out 
in  just  that  way. 

Finally  a  cow  moose  came  into  sight  and  we  let 
her  pass;  next  Baker  came  along  lighting  trees  and 
ringing  his  infernal  bell,  while  Dixon  passed  north 
of  us  along  the  timber  line,  igniting  trees.  Then 
we  realized  some  one  had  misunderstood  and  the 
drive  was  called  off,  not  to  be  repeated.  Baker  and 
the  writer  decided  to  ride  north  along  the  plateau 
with  the  possibility  of  locating  game,  while  the 
others  returned  to  camp. 

Jim  and  I  agreed  that  with  one  or  two  extra  men 
to  help  him  in  the  center  and  the  hunters  placed 
where  the  plateau  narrowed  farther  down,  the 
moose  drive  would  have  been  perfect;  we  also 
agreed  that  we  were  quite  pleased  that  it  did  not 


136      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

work  out,  as  it  Is  a  fine  scheme  for  killing,  but  a 
rotten  form  of  sport.  Down  at  the  river  bend  we 
saw  where  the  plateau  narrowed  to  three  hundred 
yards,  where  Dixon  intended  the  hunters  to  be 
placed,  and  here  were  the  newly  made  tracks  of  a 
number  of  very  large  moose  and  some  small  ones 
that  had  come  through  the  narrows,  descended  the 
plateau,  and  crossed  over  the  river  to  the  undis- 
turbed timber.  Back  in  camp  we  are  glad  to  have 
seen  what  a  moose  drive  is  like  and  to  have  partici- 
pated in  an  unsuccessful  one,  but  we  are  quite  deter- 
mined that  we  will  hunt  our  moose  in  the  future  like 
Christians  and  gentlemen  and  not  by  means  of  the 
drive. 

September  5.  Snow  began  to  fall  early  last  eve- 
ning and  continued  all  night,  and  the  ground  was 
covered  even  down  in  the  timber  about  our  camp. 
As  the  storm  persisted  all  day,  making  it  impossible 
to  locate  game,  the  hunters  stayed  in  camp  and 
undertook  various  repair  work,  while  the  guides 
spent  their  time  in  taking  care  of  the  many  heads 
and  scalps  we  had  brought  in  as  trophies  of  our 
hunting.  The  writer  became  restless  from  lack  of 
exercise  and  decided  to  ramble  across  the  moun- 
tains, not  so  much  in  hope  of  seeing  any  game,  as 
the  swirling  snow  obscured  everything  except  at 
close  range.  Going  through  the  timber  there  were 
many  fresh  snow  trails  of  small  moose,  but  no  track 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      137 

of  sufficient  size  was  located  to  warrant  following. 
After  crossing  several  mountains  and  seeing  noth- 
ing, but  having  an  eight-mile  walk,  I  came  down  to 
the  river  bottom,  and  in  crossing  the  swollen  St. 
Clair  succeeded  in  becoming  wet  and  chilled,  but 
finally  came  into  camp  with  that  entirely  alive  feel- 
ing that  is  begotten  only  by  activity. 

September  6.  Dixon  had  been  telling  us  of  a 
wonderful  moose  range  about  fifteen  miles  down 
the  valley  and  across  the  range,  so  the  writer  de- 
cided to  look  it  over  with  the  thought  of  camping 
there  for  a  few  days.  We  started  at  six  this  morn- 
ing, a  large  party,  as  all  of  us  were  going  along,  but 
after  crossing  Bull  Creek,  Hoyt  and  Hayden  took 
the  lower  level,  Bettle  and  Baker  took  a  middle 
course,  while  Cutting  and  myself,  with  Dixon  and 
Albert,  took  the  higher  course,  going  up  through 
timber  and  traveling  along  the  snow-covered,  tundra 
mountains  above  timber  line,  where  we  could  see 
everything;  only  there  was  nothing  to  be  seen,  ex- 
cept snow-covered  mountains  whose  barren  monot- 
ony of  white  was  not  even  broken  by  a  rock. 

At  noon  we  descended  a  steep  mountain  into  a 
ravine  where  there  was  some  timber,  and  noticed  a 
lynx  and  porcupine  trail  in  the  snow  leading  to  a 
spruce  tree,  but  not  leaving  the  tree  again;  we 
finally  discovered  both  the  lynx  and  the  porcupine 
had  climbed  to  the  top  and  were  looking  upon  us  in 


138      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

fancied  security,  which  became  even  more  apparent 
as  we  tried  to  drive  them  down  with  a  fusillade  of 
snowballs. 

Albert  looked  upon  our  unprofessional  methods 
for  a  moment,  and  then  in  tones  tinged  with  disgust 
said:  "Ugh!  me  ketch  him  lynx,"  to  which  we 
added  our  enthusiasm.  The  Indian  took  a  piece  of 
caribou  thong  five  feet  long  from  his  pocket  and  tied 
one  end  securely  to  a  willow  stick  of  equal  length, 
made  a  running  noose  at  the  other  end,  and  drawing 
on  his  thick  leather  gloves  began  to  climb  the  tree. 
The  lynx  went  to  the  very  top,  and  the  tree  swayed 
as  Albert  went  up  to  within  four  feet  of  the  lynx, 
where  he  adjusted  the  noose  and  very  neatly  threw 
It  over  the  head  of  the  animal,  and  giving  it  a  jerk 
pulled  him  out  of  the  tree  into  the  snow. 

Dixon  grabbed  the  stick,  and  while  the  animal 
tore  around  we  stood  at  a  safe  distance,  with  a  fine 
respect  for  the  razor-like  claws.  Finally  Albert 
threw  a  sack  over  the  animal  and  pinned  him  to  the 
snow  and,  grabbing  him  by  the  back  of  the  neck, 
one  foot  at  a  time  was  released  from  the  sack  until 
we  had  all  his  feet  tied  up  with  silk  handkerchiefs. 
Then  we  took  the  sack  off  and  removed  the  noose 
from  his  throat,  and  while  Albert  held  him  by  the 
back  of  the  neck  we  took  the  captive's  photograph. 
We  expected  to  release  him,  but  Cutting  wanted  him 
to  take  home  to  catch  mice,  so  the  lynx  was  put  in 
a  saddle  bag,  to  begin  the  initial  stage  of  his  journey 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       139 

from  the  wilds  of  the  Yukon  to  the  wilds  of  New 
York. 

As  we  had  spent  considerable  time  with  the  lynx 
hunt,  we  decided  to  have  lunch  where  we  were,  and 
had  boiled  the  tea  pall  and  were  sitting  In  the  snow 
eating  cold  caribou  steaks,  when  the  horses  began 
to  sniff  suspiciously  and  gaze  down  the  gulch  five 
hundred  yards  below  us.  Following  their  gaze,  we 
saw  two  grizzlies  that  had  crossed  the  gulch  and 
were  making  their  way  up  the  mountain  we  had  de- 
scended. We  figured  that  after  reaching  the  top 
they  would  scent  our  horse  tracks  in  the  snow  and 
would  follow  the  trail  to  discover  the  eause,  so  we 
grabbed  our  guns  and,  the  writer  leading  the  way, 
started  up  the  nIne-hundred-feet-hIgh  slope,  follow- 
ing our  horse  trail. 

Part  way  up  Cutting  ran  ahead,  and  when  we 
were  seventy-five  yards  from  the  top  the  smaller 
grizzly  came  into  view  at  the  crest,  and  Cutting 
with  a  single  shot  through  the  brain  killed  the  bear. 
Again  we  ran  forward  and  the  larger  bear  was  seen 
standing  on  hind  legs.  Interested  in  what  had  hap- 
pened to  her  cub;  Cutting  immediately  began  shoot- 
ing, missing  twice,  but  his  third  shot  hit  the  paw, 
and  the  bear  turned  a  complete  somersault  and 
rolled  over  In  the  snow,  chewing  and  tearing  at  Its 
wounded  foot  for  a  moment,  and  then  made  off 
down  the  mountain  into  the  ravine,  with  Cutting 
following. 


I40      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

The  rest  of  us  went  back  to  our  neglected  lunch 
and  had  about  finished  when  Cutting,  having  aban- 
doned the  wounded  bear,  returned  to  our  cook  fire. 
After  we  had  finished.  Cutting,  with  Albert,  decided 
to  take  up  the  tracking  of  the  bear,  while  Dixon 
and  the  writer  continued  on  about  five  miles  to  a 
reconnoissance  of  the  moose  country. 

When  Cutting  had  first  abandoned  the  grizzly's 
trail,  the  animal  traveled  a  mile,  where  Baker  and 
Bettle  saw  him  jumping  along  two  hundred  and 
fifty  yards  away,  but  he  had  disappeared  before 
Bettle  could  put  the  gun  on  him.  About  a  mile 
farther  Hoyt  and  Hayden  saw  him  seventy-five 
yards  away,  running  through  a  swale,  and  though 
the  shooting  was  difficult,  because  the  game  was  visi- 
ble for  a  moment  only,  Hoyt  hit  him  at  the  first  shot 
and  then  finished  him  with  five  more  well-aimed 
shots.  Cutting  and  Albert,  hearing  the  shooting, 
came  in  that  direction  and  found  Hayden  skinning 
out  the  grizzly,  after  which  they  all  started  back  to 
camp. 

Dixon  and  the  writer  continued  on  above  timber 
line  across  some  high  tundra-covered  mountains, 
that  finally  ended  in  an  almost  perpendicular  wall 
which  dropped  down  several  thousand  feet  to  a  six- 
mile-wide  valley,  fairly  well  timbered  and  contain- 
ing a  number  of  lakes.  We  searched  the  valley  for 
an  hour  or  two  with  the  glasses  without  discovering 
any  moose,  but  the  writer  decided  it  looked  a  prom- 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      141 

ising  moose  country  and  determined  to  return  the 
following  day  and  camp  here  a  few  days  in  order  to 
be  on  the  ground  for  early  and  late  hunting.  At 
five  o'clock  we  began  to  retrace  our  steps  to  camp, 
whither  we  arrived  after  dark.  After  getting  Cut- 
ting's lynx  out  of  the  saddle  bag,  we  had  quite  an 
exciting  time  putting  a  collar  around  his  neck,  after 
which  he  was  chained  to  a  tree  and  the  silk  hand- 
kerchiefs taken  from  his  feet,  and  there  he  is  des- 
tined to  remain  until  he  begins  the  second  stage  of 
his  journey  to  New  York. 


CHAPTER  IX 

There  where  the  livid  tundras  keep  their  tryst  with  the 

tranquil  snows; 
There  where  the  silences  are  spawned  and  the  light  of 

hell-fire  flows 
Into  the  bowl  of  the  midnight  sky,  violet,  amber,  and 


September  7.  Although  the  temperature  was 
low,  a  cloudless  sky  and  brilliant,  early-morning  sun 
promised  a  fair  day,  as  we  saddled  our  riding  horses 
and  loaded  a  pack  animal  with  bedding  and  small 
cook  outfit  and  made  ready  to  start  for  the  moose 
grounds,  which  had  been  reconnoitered  by  the  writer 
yesterday.  Albert  and  myself  will  spend  several 
days  there,  and  we  took  Morley  Bones  along  with 
us  in  order  to  bring  back  the  horses  after  we  reached 
our  camping  place,  as  we  did  not  wish  to  be  bothered 
by  having  to  look  after  horses  in  a  locality  where 
horse  feed  was  scarce  and  the  probability  of  horses 
straying  off  was  almost  a  certainty. 

Starting  at  seven,  our  course  lay  down  the  St. 
Clair  bottoms  a  number  of  miles,  where  we  turned 
off  at  Bull  Creek  and  began  our  upward  climb 
through  the  timber  until  we  came  out  on  the  tree- 

14a 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      143 

less  tundra-covered  mountains,  blanketed  with  snow. 
While  winding  around  the  slopes,  we  located  a  band 
of  twenty  caribou  resting  a  mile  away  up  on  the 
rounded  summit.  One  of  the  animals,  a  small  bull, 
came  down  to  investigate  us,  and  for  ten  minutes 
circled  around  within  two  hundred  yards,  alter- 
nately loping  along  at  an  easy  trot  and  stopping  to 
sniff  the  air. 

These  caribou  seem  to  have  an  intense  amount 
of  curiosity  and  appear  to  be  unafraid  at  the  sight 
of  man,  as  it  has  happened  a  number  of  times  that 
under  the  spell  of  the  investigating  spirit  they  have 
come  quite  close.  It  always  happened,  however, 
that  as  soon  as  they  got  our  wind,  they  have  started 
off  in  full  flight,  and  this  particular  caribou  was  no 
exception  to  the  rule;  for,  after  running  back  and 
forth  along  our  flank  for  some  time,  he  nearly  circled 
us,  and  as  soon  as  he  reached  the  windward  his  head 
shot  up,  as  he  stopped  for  a  moment  with  quivering 
nostrils,  and  then  he  dashed  in  full  speed  up  the 
mountain. 

About  noon  we  descended  somewhat  to  the  edge 
of  timber,  where  we  cooked  lunch  and  decided  to 
camp,  as  the  tundra  mountain  rose  behind  us  a  mile 
to  its  highest  ridge  and  then  dropped  down  precipi- 
tously a  number  of  thousand  feet  into  the  broad 
valley  where  we  would  hunt  moose.  Our  high 
ridge  gave  us  an  excellent  vantage  point  not  far 
from  our  camp,  from  which  to  search  the  valley  with 


144      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

our  glasses  early  and  late.  Bones  left  us  after 
lunch,  taking  back  all  the  horses  and  promising  to 
return  for  us  five  days  later.  As  we  had  brought 
no  tent,  we  selected  a  large  spruce  tree,  whose  lower 
branches  we  stripped  on  one  side;  then  cut  smaller 
spruce  trees,  the  ends  of  which  we  rested  on  the 
lateral  branches  of  the  big  tree  about  five  feet  up 
the  trunk,  and  this  furnished  us  with  a  brush  shelter 
for  the  night. 

Early  afternoon  found  us  on  the  ridge,  walking 
along  the  edge  and  searching  with  our  glasses  the 
snow-covered  valley  below.  As  the  timber  was 
quite  thick  in  the  valley  we  were  obliged  to  travel 
many  miles  along  the  ridge  in  order  to  make  a  care- 
ful examination.  Finally  a  dark  shape  was  seen 
moving  through  the  timber,  and  it  was  some  time 
before  we  had  a  clear  view  of  the  head,  but  our 
examination  disclosed  the  animal  to  be  a  cow  moose, 
which  we  did  not  want.  Across  the  snow  fields  on 
the  tundra  the  setting  sun  blazed  its  dazzling  path, 
leading  across  valley,  mountain,  and  icy  peaks,  past 
towering  Mt.  Natazhat,  until  it  sank  into  the  sea 
of  peaks  to  the  westward.  Immediately  the  snow 
fields  were  faintly  tinted  with  lavender,  deepening 
to  light  purple,  while  the  mountain  fronts  shadowed 
violet  as  the  night  crept  up  from  the  already  dark- 
ened valleys.  We  stayed  out  until  dark  without 
seeing  any  further  game,  and  then  returned  to  our 
brush  camp  for  supper. 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      145 

Albert  tells  me  that  In  November  this  low  tundra 
mountain  is  covered  with  many  sheep  that  have  left 
the  high  mountains  up  the  St.  Clair,  where  in  winter 
the  snows  are  very  deep  and  it  is  difficult  to  get  feed. 
I  have  asked  him  about  this  several  times,  as  the 
sheep  ranges  of  the  St.  Clair  are  nearly  forty  miles 
away,  and  I  have  never  heard  of  sheep  moving  such 
a  distance  from  their  native  range;  however,  Albert 
says  he  has  come  here  a  number  of  times  in  Novem- 
ber to  kill  his  winter  supply  of  sheep  and  caribou, 
and  he  has  always  found  sheep  along  the  low  moun- 
tain ridge  on  whose  slopes  we  are  camped. 

September  8.  At  four  o'clock  we  were  break- 
fasting in  the  dark  and  half  an  hour  later  found  us 
on  the  ridge,  looking  down  upon  the  valley,  waiting 
for  the  coming  of  the  light.  The  snow  fields 
showed  bluish  white,  while  the  peaks  were  faintly 
tinted  with  pink,  as  the  first  rays  of  the  sun  fell  far 
across  them,  but  as  the  sun  rose  higher  the  pink 
faded  and  the  entire  landscape  sparkled  under  the 
glare.  I  have  often  wondered  why  the  painters 
almost  invariably  fail  to  differentiate  between  the 
early  morning  pink  tinge  on  their  snow  fields  and 
the  faint  lavender  tint  which  setting  sun  casts  upon 
a  winter  landscape,  for  the  distinction  is  quite  obvi- 
ous to  the  keen  observer.  As  the  Indian  and  my- 
self sat  shivering  on  the  ridge  under  the  magic  and 
wonder  of  the  dawn,  I  asked  him  why  the  sun  made 
a  pink  color  as  he  came  across  the  mountains  In  the 


146      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

morning  and  a  lavender  tint  as  he  disappeared  be- 
hind the  peaks  at  night,  and  received  the  simple 
answer:  "When  Big  Fire  come  in  morning,  him 
make  all  warm,  him  make  warm  look  on  snow ;  when 
Big  Fire  go  down  sleep,  him  make  all  cold,  him 
make  cold  mark  on  snow;  tell  Injun  go  make  fire." 

We  walked  along  the  ridge  many  miles,  search- 
ing the  valley  for  moose,  but  failed  to  locate  any- 
thing until  five  miles  from  camp  a  herd  of  twenty- 
one  caribou  were  seen  on  the  tundra,  pawing  down 
through  the  snow  to  get  their  morning  meal  of  white 
moss,  which  is  almost  their  only  winter  diet.  Since 
our  need  for  meat  was  pressing,  the  writer  picked 
out  a  small  calf,  which  fell  dead  with  a  single  shot, 
and  Albert  packed  the  animal  on  his  back  to  our 
camp,  where  we  immediately  fried  and  dispatched 
all  the  rib  chops. 

At  eleven  we  were  again  on  a  lookout  ridge,  and 
seven  miles  away  down  the  valley  at  Tepee  Lake 
we  saw  a  moose  feeding  in  the  water.  The  glasses 
disclosed  him  to  be  a  bull  with  a  very  good  head  and 
a  twelve-inch-long  bell  which  had  not  been  frozen 
off  in  the  winter.  We  wanted  him  badly,  but  did 
not  dare  to  leave  our  vantage  point,  as  long  before 
we  could  reach  him  his  feeding  would  be  finished 
and  we  would  not  know  the  course  he  had  taken. 

After  watching  him  an  hour,  the  moose  left  the 
lake  and  started  into  the  timber  on  the  right,  and 
we  saw  him  no  more.     It  was  almost  useless  to  at- 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       147 

tempt  to  track  him,  as  a  bull  moose  at  this  season 
is  one  of  the  most  wary  animals  that  roam  the  wil- 
derness. They  are  very  particular,  when  they  lie 
down,  to  select  a  place  where  they  can  not  only 
observe  their  immediate  back  trail,  but  where  any 
hunter  following  the  trail  is  sure  to  have  his  scent 
wafted  to  the  animal.  Albert  looked  at  the  country 
to  the  right  of  the  lake,  and  finally  decided  the 
moose  would  circle  carefully  around  a  certain  hill 
which  was  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  lake  and  would 
go  to  the  top  for  several  hours'  rest.  Why  Albert 
selected  this  particular  hill  among  any  number  of 
hills,  I  know  not,  but  the  writer  never  questions  the 
judgment  or  instinct  of  an  Indian  on  the  subject  of 
moose  hunting,  so  we  started  down  the  mountain. 
The  timbered  valley,  that  appeared  so  inviting  from 
above,  was  found  to  be  one  vast  bog,  into  which 
we  sank  six  inches  with  every  step,  making  walking 
very  slow  and  tedious. 

At  last  we  reached  the  base  of  the  hill  the  Indian 
had  selected  as  the  resting  place  of  the  moose,  and 
after  testing  the  wind  to  be  certain  our  scent  would 
not  be  wafted  towards  the  crest,  our  final  stalk  be- 
gan. Crouching  low  and  placing  our  steps  care- 
fully in  order  to  avoid  breaking  any  twigs,  we  had 
almost  reached  the  crest,  when,  in  spite  of  our  cau- 
tion, we  made  a  slight  noise,  and  the  bull  jumped 
up  seventy-five  feet  ahead  of  us  and  made  off  before 
we  could  get  a  shot. 


148      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

We  stood  still  for  five  minutes,  and  then  decided 
the  moose  would  not  run  far  as  he  had  not  seen  us 
and  was  not  greatly  frightened.  Albert  started  out 
and  made  a  circle  of  three  miles,  reporting  on  his 
return  that  the  animal  was  somewhere  within  the 
circle;  so  we  started  out  to  locate  him,  and  had 
climbed  a  high  ridge  and  were  about  to  descend  to 
a  ravine  and  climb  a  low  hill  on  the  other  side. 
Albert  became  a  bit  careless,  and  said :  "  Moose 
other  side  hill  " ;  even  as  he  spoke,  the  bull  heard 
his  voice  and  jumped  up.  Two  of  my  shots  missed, 
as  he  vanished  over  the  ridge  out  of  sight,  but  he 
came  in  sight  again  four  hundred  yards  away  and 
stood  for  a  moment,  when  by  good  luck  rather  than 
good  shooting  I  placed  a  shot  through  the  body, 
which  severely  wounded  him,  but  did  not  bring  him 
down.  At  once  we  took  up  the  red  trail  on  the 
snow  and  followed  it  a  number  of  miles;  frequently 
the  moose  stopped  to  eat  snow,  but  invariably 
forged  ahead.  We  tracked  him  seven  miles  and 
then  abandoned  the  chase  on  account  of  darkness,  to 
resume  the  tracking  the  following  day,  when  Albert 
said  the  moose  would  be  dead. 

The  climbing  up  to  camp  in  the  darkness  was  slow 
and  difficult  work  on  the  snow  slope,  but  after  sev- 
eral hours  we  reached  our  brush  shelter  and  built 
a  roaring  fire,  before  which  we  dried  out  our  wet 
garments  and  roasted  a  hindquarter  of  the  calf  cari- 
bou suspended  from  a  stick  above  the  coals.     Albert 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      149 

was  quite  disturbed  at  the  idea  we  had  been  so  un- 
skillful as  to  alarm  the  moose,  and  expressed  him- 
self quite  at  length  on  the  subject.  "  Boots  no  good 
for  hunt  moose,  easy  scare  him  this  time;  not  same 
summer  time,  that  time  no  easy  scare;  me  talk  too 
much,  scare  moose  last  time."  We  agreed,  how- 
ever, that  in  the  future  the  writer  will  muffle  his 
feet  if  the  Indian  will  play  a  dumb  role,  and  that 
we  will  commence  our  reform  to-morrow  if  the  op- 
portunity is  offered. 

September  g.  We  have  had  a  very  strenuous 
day  and  as  we  sit  beneath  our  brush  shelter  with  a 
real  man's  fire  radiating  warmth  and  cheerfulness, 
while  outside  of  our  evergreen  bower  the  wind 
howls  and  the  blinding  snowstorm  rages  through 
the  darkness,  the  weariness  of  the  day's  work  fades 
and  a  sense  of  restfulness  and  quiet  amusement 
reigns  in  our  little  camp.  As  I  look  at  my  dusky 
companion  the  words  of  Kipling  descriptive  of 
*'  Fuzzy  Wuzzy," 

"I've  fought  with  many  across  the  seas, 
And  some  of  'em  was  brave  and  some  was  not," 

persist  in  forcing  their  way  from  the  margin  into 
the  center  of  consciousness,  not  because  of  any  fight 
in  which  we  have  engaged,  but  by  reason  of  the  hunt 
we  have  made  to-day. 

The  writer  has  hunted  with  many  men  of  various 
races,  from  savage  to  the  usual  white  guide,  from 


ISO      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

Hudson's  Bay  Cree,  Ojibway,  and  the  Montanais 
Indian  down  through  the  half-breed  strain  to  the 
full  blood,  white  trapper,  but  has  never  quite 
reached  the  hunting  technique  employed  by  Albert, 
my  Aishihik  Indian  companion,  on  to-day's  hunt. 
We  had  breakfast  and  were  out  on  the  ridge  on 
lookout  by  four-thirty  this  morning  and  we  saw 
nothing  whatever  until  eleven  o'clock,  when  three 
bull  moose  came  into  the  water  to  feed  at  the  far 
end  of  Tepee  Lake  nine  miles  away. 

There  were  two  small  bulls  and  one  immense  bull, 
whose  magnificent  spread  of  horn  we  clearly  made 
out  with  the  glasses  as  his  wet  antlers  flashed  in  the 
sunlight.  While  we  watched  this  bull,  not  daring 
to  leave  our  lookout  until  he  ceased  feeding  and 
indicated  the  direction  of  his  afternoon's  resting 
place,  we  too  satisfied  our  hunger  with  smoked  cari- 
bou meat  and  hardtack,  until  the  old  bull  finally 
stopped  feeding  and  swam  across  a  little  bay.  We 
watched  the  two  small  bulls  follow  him,  until  he 
drove  them  off,  and  then  pursued  his  solitary  course 
along  the  lake  beach  and  disappeared  into  the  tim- 
ber. Albert  looked  over  the  country  carefully  and 
finally  picked  out  a  hill  where  he  felt  sure  the  moose 
would  go  to  rest,  and  at  once  we  hurried  down  the 
mountain  and  began  our  ten-mile  stalk  for  that  dis- 
tant hill. 

As  we  "  mushed  "  through  the  snow  masking  the 
clinging  bog,  into  which  we  sank  with  every  step, 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      151 

the  Indian,  traveling  ahead,  was  certainly  keeping 
the  vow  of  silence  made  the  previous  evening.  Ar- 
rived at  Harris  River,  flowing  through  the  middle 
of  the  valley,  we  looked  at  the  three-feet-deep  icy 
stream  for  a  moment  until  the  Indian  announced: 
"  Us  take  off  boots  and  sox,  not  get  feet  wet,"  so 
we  removed  these  items  of  footwear,  tied  them 
around  our  necks,  and  waded  across  to  the  other 
side,  where  we  dried  our  feet  and  replacing  our  sox 
and  boots  continued  through  the  marshy  valley. 
Two  miles  farther  we  pressed  on  in  silence  when 
the  Indian  stopped  and,  turning  to  me,  said:  "  Big 
boots  make  big  noise,  scare  him  moose;  us  take  off 
big  boots  and  sox,  walk  in  bare  feet  in  snow;  easy 
walk,  come  close,  not  scare  him  moose,"  and,  suiting 
the  action  to  precept,  the  Indian  began  to  remove  his 
own  boots. 

I  looked  a  moment  at  the  eight-inch-deep  snow, 
soft  and  wet,  and  decided  to  play  up  to  any  hunting 
game  the  Indian  would  propose,  so  with  boots  dan- 
gling around  our  necks  and  trousers  rolled  above 
our  knees  we  took  our  barefoot  and  bare-legged  way 
through  the  snow.  After  an  hour's  mushing  in  this 
manner  I  had  gotten  over  the  amusement  of  hunting 
barefoot  In  the  snow  and  decided  to  put  on  my  sox, 
at  least  for  warmth,  but  soon  discovered  that  the  sox 
held  a  large  amount  of  icy  water,  as  they  sank  into 
the  marsh,  and  the  extremities  were  colder  than  they 
had  been  without  the  sox,  so  I  came  back  to  the 


152      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

barefoot  stalk.  Really  this  method  of  stalking  re- 
sults in  one  hundred  per  cent,  silence,  for  the  reason 
that  twigs  and  branches  hurt  the  bare  feet  and  con- 
sequently the  stalker  is  particular  to  avoid  them. 

We  approached  the  hill  where  Albert  felt  the 
moose  was  resting,  and  with  less  noise  than  the 
drifting  snowflake  searched  every  foot  of  the 
ground;  shod  in  silence  we  searched  two  other  hills 
without  result,  and  finally  came  upon  the  trail  of  our 
moose  leading  across  a  wide,  low  marsh,  as  he  evi- 
dently had  no  intention  of  resting  on  any  of  the 
near-by  hills.  Taking  his  trail,  we  decided  to  fol- 
low him;  and  if  his  course  led  to  a  hill  we  would 
stalk  him,  provided  there  was  still  sufficient  day- 
light; or,  if  the  light  failed,  we  would  still  camp 
under  a  tree  and  stalk  him  in  the  morning.  For  a 
long  distance  we  hung  on  his  trail,  through  the 
marsh,  down  the  valley,  with  no  deviation  towards 
the  hills;  it  began  to  snow  hard  and  darkness  came 
on,  making  it  impossible  to  do  further  tracking  as 
the  snow  blanketed  the  tracks;  it  was  futile  to  at- 
tempt to  follow  an  obliterated  trail  and  equally 
unpromising  even  to  hope  to  pick  it  up  in  the  morn- 
ing, when  the  snow  would  be  deeper. 

It  was  disappointing  and  difficult  to  come  to  the 
point  of  giving  up  that  moose,  as  we  had  decided 
to  follow  that  trail  and,  forgetting  our  blankets  and 
grub,  to  sleep  on  the  trail  until  we  had  that  moose; 
but  we  had  reckoned  without  the  snow  which  wiped 


3 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      153 

out  all  tracks,  leaving  us  no  trail  to  follow.  In  the 
darkness  we  put  on  our  footgear,  and  facing  north- 
ward into  the  driving  snow  began  our  weary  and 
slow  journey  back  to  the  brush  camp.  Since  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning  we  had  eaten  nothing  except 
a  little  hardtack  and  some  strips  of  "  jerkey";  we 
had  mushed  over  twenty  miles  through  the  snow- 
covered  bog,  where  every  step  involved  the  addi- 
tional effort  of  pulling  out  of  the  cHnging  mire,  and 
as  we  toiled  up  the  mountain  slope  in  the  darkness 
and  in  the  storm  we  were  conscious  of  that  gloomy 
feeling  of  very  weary,  hungry  men,  who  had  played 
the  game  to  the  limit  of  our  abilities  and  had  failed 
because  of  supervening  conditions  beyond  our  con- 
trol. 

We  roasted  the  other  hindquarter  of  our  caribou 
as  we  dried  out  beside  a  roaring  fire ;  we  also  roasted 
a  pile  of  marrow  bones  we  had  been  collecting,  and 
after  devouring  all  the  cooked  meat  and  marrow, 
we  are  quite  ready  to  start  a  new  hunt  to-morrow. 

September  10.  This  morning  the  blizzard  con- 
tinued with  undiminished  power,  obscuring  the  view 
and  making  hunting  impossible,  so  we  cleaned  gun, 
made  our  brush  camp  a  bit  more  impervious  to 
snow,  and  collected  trees  for  firewood.  In  the  after- 
noon the  storm  abated  somewhat,  and  through  the 
scattering  flakes  we  saw  a  herd  of  caribou  feeding  on 
the  sky  line  of  the  tundra  three  miles  above  us;  the 
writer  decided  to  get  a  calf  for  meat,  while  Albert 


154      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

went  to  bring  in  the  head  of  the  moose  we  had  shot 
two  days  ago.  While  stalking  up  the  tundra  for 
the  caribou  the  blizzard  resumed  its  sway  with  in- 
creased power,  and  the  game  was  entirely  hidden  in 
the  blinding  snow;  however,  I  continued  to  the  top, 
in  hope  of  blundering  into  the  herd,  but  the  animals 
evidently  got  my  wind,  as  I  saw  nothing  more  of 
them. 

After  Albert*s  return  we  sat  down  for  a  "  big 
feed  '*  upon  the  last  of  our  caribou,  and  then,  piling 
our  fire  four  feet  high  with  logs,  reclined  on  our 
robes  beneath  the  brush  shelter  and  prepared  to 
spend  a  sociable  evening  exchanging  ideas.  Albert 
is  the  eldest  son  of  the  tribal  chieftain,  who  is  of 
advanced  age  and  who  will  be  succeeded  by  his 
eldest  son,  but  Albert  tells  me  he  has  made  up  his 
mind  to  decline  the  honor  in  favor  of  "  Rabbit,"  his 
brother.  I  have  pressed  my  companion  on  this  mat- 
ter, and  learn  that  the  chief  is  a  man  who  settles  all 
disputes  between  the  members  of  the  tribe  and 
whose  decisions  on  any  matter  are  not  only  re- 
spected but  are  final.  However,  there  is  no  mate- 
rial advantage  in  being  chief,  since  the  tribe  does  not 
in  any  way  contribute  to  his  support,  and  the  honor 
is  an  empty  one,  made  the  more  empty  by  reason 
of  the  fact  that  custom  decrees  the  chief  shall  each 
year  give  a  *'  potlatch." 

This  "  potlatch  '*  is  a  party  given  to  the  whole 
tribe,  with  the  chieftain  playing  the  part  of  host. 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      155 

The  chief  must  purchase  from  two  to  three  hundred 
blankets  from  the  Indian  traders,  and  as  this  in- 
volves an  expense  of  about  twelve  hundred  dollars 
he  must  have  had  a  successful  trapping  season  in 
order  to  finance  the  social  duties  of  his  position. 
Having  provided  the  blankets,  he  sends  runners  to 
the  various  bands  and  families,  inviting  them  to  at- 
tend the  "  potlatch "  on  a  certain  day  at  a  fixed 
place,  and  in  the  meantime  the  chief  and  his  family 
kill  many  caribou,  moose,  and  sheep  for  the  tribal 
fest. 

On  the  designated  day  the  members  of  the  tribe 
come  together  and  erect  their  tents,  the  meat  is 
roasted  before  immense  fires,  and  at  evening  the 
entire  tribe  shoot  off  rifles  to  start  the  celebration 
which  precedes  the  big  feast.  Then  the  chief 
"  makes  big  talk  "  to  the  tribe,  and  completes  his 
part  in  the  play  by  presenting  every  one  with  blan- 
kets, after  which  there  is  much  dancing.  This  con- 
tinues for  several  days,  or,  to  be  exact,  until  the 
meat  supply  runs  out,  when  the  various  families  de- 
part to  their  trapping  grounds,  leaving  the  chief  im- 
poverished, but  conscious  of  having  performed  his 
social  obligations. 

Albert  voiced  his  views  as  to  chieftainship  as 
follows :  "  Chief  all  time  poor,  all  time  give  pot- 
latch;  me  not  be  chief."  However,  the  writer  has 
by  suggestion  planted  a  seed  in  the  Indian's  mind 
that  may  grow  into  a  new  custom,  as  I  have  pointed 


156      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

out  to  Albert  that  since  everybody  obeys  the  chief, 
and  since  the  chief  gets  nothing  for  performing  his 
duties,  he  should  make  each  family  bring  him  a 
certain  amount  of  fur  each  year  and  by  selling  this 
fur  to  make  a  "  potlatch,"  he  could  give  the  party 
without  stripping  himself.  Albert  Is  much  Inter- 
ested In  the  plan  and  has  several  times  asked  more 
about  the  details,  and  the  way  he  nods  his  head  as  I 
explain  the  fairness  of  the  plan  argues  strongly  for 
a  new  tribal  custom  for  "  potlatches  "  In  the  Yukon 
wilderness. 

September  ii.  The  snow  had  ceased  falling, 
though  gray  clouds  continued  to  shroud  the  peaks 
as  we  started  down  to  Tepee  Lake  at  five  o'clock  in 
the  morning  In  order  to  be  close  at  hand  In  case  any 
moose  came  out  to  feed,  our  plan  being  In  that  event 
to  make  a  rapid  stalk  for  the  game  while  It  was  In 
the  water.  On  the  way  down  the  valley  we  saw 
two  cows  browsing  upon  willows,  but  we  passed  them 
and  at  seven  o'clock  took  our  stand  on  a  hill-top 
near  the  edge  of  the  lake.  It  was  very  cold;  in  fact, 
the  low  temperature  must  have  been  discouraging 
for  moose  to  feed  In  the  lake,  as  we  waited  until 
noon  without  seeing  any  sign  of  game.  Then  as  It 
began  to  snow  we  decided  to  go  back  to  the  brush 
camp  and  had  reached  a  point  within  three  hundred 
yards  when  we  saw  the  saddled  horses  that  had  been 
brought  for  us,  and  as  George  Wright,  who  had 
brought  the  animals,  was  profitably  engaged  In  cut- 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       157 

ting  logs  for  the  fire  we  sat  down  where  we  were 
and  waited  until  he  had  finished  chopping  before 
coming  up  to  congratulate  him  on  the  steady  swing 
of  his  ax.  At  four  o'clock  we  packed  up  our  outfit 
and,  heading  into  the  storm,  left  our  brush  camp 
behind  and  started  for  the  home  camp  on  the  St. 
Clair  River,  whither  we  arrived  some  time  after 
dark,  to  find  all  the  hunters  and  guides  in  camp, 
where  we  had  a  big  talk  fest. 

The  day  we  had  started  for  the  Harris  River 
moose  country,  Wolcott,  Cutting,  and  Bettle,  with 
Dixon  and  Baker,  had  gone  back  up  the  St.  Clair  to 
our  last  willow  patch  camp  in  order  to  hunt  sheep. 
Wolcott  succeeded  in  getting  a  head  with  fifteen  inch 
circumference  at  base  of  horn,  but  the  horns  some- 
what broomed  and  imperfect  at  the  points.  Wol- 
cott had  also  gone  over  to  where  Hoyt  had  killed  a 
sheep  the  day  we  climbed  the  snow  slopes,  and  when 
within  seventy-five  yards  had  found  a  nice  grizzly 
feeding  upon  the  sheep  carcass.  The  bear  vanished 
over  a  ridge,  however,  before  Wolcott  could  shoot, 
so  the  hunter  ran  after  the  bear  and  by  excellent 
shooting  killed  him  at  a  range  of  four  hundred 
yards. 

Bettle  reported  a  rather  interesting  sheep  hunt 
with  Dixon.  Having  located  seven  rams  on  a 
mountain  slope,  Bettle  decided  to  climb  above  them, 
which  he  accomplished  after  much  effort  as  the  snow 
was   deep   and   the   ascent   steep.     When   he   was 


158      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

directly  above  the  rams,  Dixon  started  from  below 
the  band  to  stalk  up  in  plain  sight  in  order  to  frighten 
the  sheep  and  stampede  them  up  the  mountains  to 
Bettle.  As  Dixon  stalked  up,  the  rams  became 
alarmed  and  started  upward,  but  the  snow  became 
deeper  as  the  rams  went  higher,  until  they  were 
floundering  around  shoulder  deep  and  unable  to 
make  their  way  higher  up  through  the  drift.  Then 
they  turned  upon  Dixon,  who  had  no  gun,  and 
massed  together  with  lowered  heads  the  band 
charged  down  upon  the  guide  who  blockaded  their 
downward  path  to  safety,  and  the  guide  wisely  re- 
moved himself  from  their  course,  while  the  rams 
dashed  past  him  in  headlong  flight. 

As  it  is  snowing  hard  again  to-night  we  have  held 
a  council  and  decided  that  in  view  of  the  continued 
snows  it  behooves  us  to  get  part  of  our  outfit  and 
trophies  across  the  mountains  before  the  snow  be- 
comes too  deep  to  block  our  retreat.  Accordingly 
Wolcott  and  the  writer  plan  to  start  to-morrow 
morning,  if  the  weather  is  favorable,  and  with  Baker 
and  Hayden  attempt  to  force  our  way  across  the 
range  to  the  valley  of  the  Wolverine  and  make  our 
way  out  and  down  Kluane  Lake  to  the  Slims  River, 
where  we  will  go  up  to  the  glacier  and  hunt  goats. 
George  Wright  will  take  a  number  of  pack  horses 
loaded  with  trophies  and  provisions,  and  relay  them 
as  far  as  the  cabin  at  the  junction  of  the  Wolverine 
and  Donjeck.     In  the  meantime,  as  horse  feed  is 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      159 

scarce  on  the  St.  Clair,  the  others  will  move  their 
camp  down  the  St.  Clair  and  up  the  Harris  River 
Valley  where  Albert  and  myself  have  been  hunting 
moose,  and  Wright  will  join  them  with  the  horses 
after  leaving  his  load  at  the  Wolverine.  In  this 
way  the  rest  of  the  party  will  not  have  to  take  their 
horses  over  the  high  range,  but  will  come  out  up 
Harris  River  past  Tepee  Lake,  which  is  the  same 
valley  into  which  flows  the  Wolverine. 


CHAPTER  X 

**  The  lonely  summits  flame  and  die: 
The  giant  valleys  gulp  the  night; 
The  Monster  Mountains  scrape  the  sky, 
Where  eager  stars  are  diamond  bright."  . 

September  12,  To  those  who  are  destined  to  ar- 
rive the  gods  give  propitious  signs  of  their  favor, 
and  the  brilliant  sun  with  unclouded  sky  that  greeted 
us  as  we  came  from  our  tents  seemed  to  us  partic- 
ularly favorable  omens  for  a  successful  crossing  of 
the  range.  Nor  could  the  crossing  be  considered 
without  those  same  favorable  weather  conditions, 
for  the  reason  that  after  we  should  start  we  would 
be  obliged  to  cross  over  in  one  day  In  order  to  reach 
horse  feed,  without  which  It  Is  Impossible  to  take 
pack  animals  over  mountain  crests  that  tower  thou- 
sands of  feet,  where  those  same  pack  animals  are 
loaded  with  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  each,  and 
the  entire  range  is  covered  deep  with  snow,  from  the 
bottom  of  the  lowest  canyon  to  the  furtherest  sky 
piercing  peak. 

It  took  some  time  to  pack  the  horses,  as  sheep, 
caribou,  and  moose  horns  are  difficult  items  to  ar- 
range Into  packs  In  such  a  manner  that  the  horns 
are  pointed  away  from  the  sides  of  the  pack  animals, 

160 


I.  CROSSING  ST.  ELIAS  RANGE,  MT.  NATAZHAT  IN 
DISTANCE. 

2.  AUER'S  PACK  TRAIN  CROSSING  THE  ST.  ELIAS  RANGE. 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       i6i 

but  at  length  the  side  packs  were  adjusted,  the  dia- 
mond hitches  cinched  tight  over  the  pack  covers,  and 
we  were  ready.  Taking  leave  of  the  hunting  com- 
panions and  guides,  who  would  follow  a  week  later 
through  Harris  River  Valley,  Wolcott  and  myself, 
with  Baker  and  Hayden  and  George  Wright  with 
the  pack  train,  started  down  the  snow-covered  St. 
Clair  bottoms  until  we  came  to  Bull  Creek,  whose 
dwindling  course  we  followed  up  the  rocky  canyon 
into  the  heart  of  the  hills  where  the  going  was  slow 
on  the  bowlder-strewn,  snow-covered  footing,  and 
where  we  forded  the  rushing  stream  a  number  of 
times. 

Six  miles  up  the  creek  we  began  our  ascent  of  the 
mountian  slopes  covered  with  deep  snow  with 
George  Wright  leading  the  way  while  the  rest  of  us 
followed  single  file,  leading  our  saddle  horses  with 
the  pack  animals  scattered  between  us  through  the 
column  so  we  might  keep  them  from  straying. 
Ridge  after  ridge  we  traversed,  plowing  our  upward 
way  through  the  drift,  dripping  with  perspiration 
despite  the  lowering  temperature  of  the  mountain 
crests,  stopping  frequently  to  get  our  breath  and 
rest  the  horses.  The  slopes  were  very  slippery,  the 
sun  glare  on  the  snow  was  frightful,  and  would  have 
been  unbearable  except  for  our  snow  glasses,  but  the 
poor  pack  beasts  plodded  along  with  closed  eyes  to 
shut  out  the  awful  glare. 

The  horses  were  frequently  slipping  in  the  snow, 


1 62      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

but  without  falling,  until  old  Reiley,  loaded  with 
sheep  horns  for  side  packs  and  caribou  antlers  for 
top  pack,  slipped  on  a  bad  slope  and  rolled  over. 
Fortunately  he  had  sense  enough  to  lie  quiet  and 
thus  prevented  the  sharp  horns  of  his  packs  from 
piercing  his  sides,  while  we  took  off  his  load  and 
helped  him  to  his  feet  again,  after  which  he  received 
his  burden  and  the  caravan  continued  its  ascending 
course.  A  little  later  Reiley  wandered  away  from 
the  column,  probably  with  his  eyes  shut,  and  was 
headed  straight  for  the  edge  of  a  precipice  and  had 
reached  a  point  within  two  feet  of  the  brink,  when 
Jack  Hayden  caught  him  and  brought  him  within 
the  fold. 

At  the  summit  of  the  pass  we  looked  back  upon 
the  most  stupendous  and  dazzling  scene  that  has 
ever  risen  before  the  writer's  gaze,  as  ridge  after 
ridge  of  mountains  rising  rank  upon  rank,  glowed 
and  glared  in  the  sun  like  metal  at  white  heat,  while 
the  mighty  Ice  mass  of  Mt.  Natazhat's  seventeen 
thousand  feet  crest  challenged  the  heavens.  In  sun- 
shine, with  the  Gods  of  the  Wilderness  smiling,  the 
crossing  proved  to  be  nothing  more  than  very  stren- 
uous climbing  up  the  snow  slopes,  In  the  midst  of  a 
panorama  of  infinite  and  unspeakable  beauty  and 
grandeur;  but  had  a  blizzard  overtaken  us  the  story 
must  have  been  very  different.  In  the  afternoon  we 
came  down  the  mountains,  and  at  four  o'clock  found 
the  first  willow  where  we  could  get  a  little  firewood 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       163 

and  where  the  horses  might  have  a  little  feed.  We 
decided  to  stop  here  for  the  night,  as  there  was  no 
other  horse  feed  until  we  should  reach  the  Donjeck 
River. 

This  place  could  hardly  be  called  a  camp  as  there 
was  nothing  in  the  way  of  poles  with  which  to  erect 
a  tent,  but  that  did  not  concern  us  as  much  as  the 
difficulty  in  finding  a  spot  where  we  could  lie  down, 
as  the  slope  was  steep  and  to  lie  down  was  to  place 
ourselves  at  a  slant  of  forty-five  degrees,  with  the 
probability  of  sliding  down  through  the  snow  into 
the  canyon.  We  organized  a  hunt  for  a  reasonably 
level  resting  place  on  which  to  roll  up  in  our  robes 
in  the  snow.  After  our  hunt  for  a  resting  place,  we 
made  a  search  for  dead  willow  sticks  and  collected  a 
small  supply  to  cook  our  supper  and  breakfast;  that 
is  to  say,  we  had  enough  to  thaw  out  and  warm  our 
stack  of  sheep  steaks  which  are  very  edible  even  if 
raw.  George  Wright  looked  at  the  pile  of  half- 
cooked  sheep  meat  and  ventured  the  remark:  "  This 
would  be  no  place  for  Mrs.  Nuts.''  We  told  him 
we  did  not  know  the  lady,  and  agreed  with  him  that 
this  was  no  place  for  any  lady,  but  that  we  would 
be  interested  to  learn  why  it  would  be  particularly 
unfavorable  for  Mrs.  Nuts. 

Wright  hitched  himself  almost  into  the  handful 
of  coals  that  failed  even  to  melt  the  snow  and  said, 
*'  Well,  there  was  a  woman  come  up  from  the  out- 
side during  the  Klondike  stampede  and  she  was  a 


1 64      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

queer  one;  she  was  one  of  these  browsers;  wouldn't 
eat  no  meat,  just  grass  and  willows  and  truck  that 
grows;  you  know  these  browser  people;  there  lots 
of  'em  back  outside.  Well,  she  came  up  with  the 
gold  rush  and  brought  with  her  nine  hundred  pounds 
of  nuts  for  grub ;  we  never  did  know  her  name,  but 
that  cut  no  figure,  cause  every  one  called  her  Mrs. 
Nuts."  After  consuming  an  alarming  amount  of 
underdone  sheep,  as  our  fire  was  useless  for  warmth 
and  the  cold  was  intense  on  the  mountains,  we  rolled 
up  in  our  sleeping  robes  on  the  frozen  snow  slope 
with  our  heads  pointed  toward  the  stars. 

September  /j.  In  spite  of  our  inclined  snow 
couch  and  lack  of  shelter,  our  sleeping  robes  kept 
us  comfortably  warm  against  the  chill  of  the  high 
altitudes,  and  after  a  partially  warm  breakfast  the 
horses  were  rounded  up  and  packed  with  their 
burdens,  and  we  continued  our  descent  of  the 
mountains,  traveling  down  a  gulch  that  held  a  tiny 
trickle  of  water,  which,  as  we  progressed,  grew  in 
volume  until  it  turned  out  to  be  one  of  the  branches 
of  the  Wolverine  River. 

The  footing  was  cruel  upon  the  horses  as  the 
canyon  was  strewn  with  sharp  bowlders  through 
which  we  picked  our  way  slowly,  frequently  crossing 
the  stream.  At  noon  we  had  descended  to  levels 
where  there  was  no  snow  and  drove  down  the  gorge 
at  a  more  rapid  pace,  made  possible  by  being  better 
able  to  pick  our  way  among  the  rocks.     Coming 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      165 

out  of  the  canyon  into  the  valley  of  the  Wolverine 
and  Harris  River,  a  heavy  rain  set  in  down  the  val- 
ley, while  the  mountains  on  either  side  and  the  range 
we  had  just  crossed  were  veiled  and  shrouded  with  a 
driving  snowstorm,  upon  which  we  gazed  with  im- 
mense satisfaction  to  think  that  the  storm  had  held 
off  long  enough  to  permit  us  to  cross,  as  the  crossing 
in  a  blizzard  such  as  was  then  raging  over  our  trail 
of  yesterday  would  have  been  utterly  out  of  the 
question. 

Rain  and  sleet  persisted  all  the  afternoon  as  we 
plodded  along  the  gloomy  valley,  following  the 
swollen  Wolverine  until  we  came  to  the  hunting 
cabin  of  Dixon  on  the  Donjeck  at  four  o'clock. 
Since  we  had  nothing  to  eat  since  early  morning  and 
as  the  Wolverine  was  too  high  for  fording,  we  de- 
cided to  stop  for  the  night  at  the  cabin  and  dry  out 
before  the  fire.  We  are  glad  the  rest  of  our  party 
will  not  attempt  to  follow  our  trail  across  the  moun- 
tains, but  will  come  around  through  the  St.  Clair 
and  Harris  River  valleys,  as  the  blizzard  of  to-day 
raging  upon  the  mountains  must  have  added  con- 
siderable depth  to  the  snow  upon  the  range. 

After  a  large  supper  of  sheep  meat,  Jim  baked 
several  loaves  of  real  bread,  while  we  sat  about  the 
stove  and  dried  our  rain-soaked  garments  until  it 
was  time  to  roll  up  in  the  sleeping  bunks.  We  are 
praying  for  a  cessation  of  the  rain,  as  the  Wolverine 
is  on  a  rampage  and  the  Donjeck  is  correspondingly 


1 66       CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

wild,  so  that  a  fording  on  the  morrow  looks  decid- 
edly dubious  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  rain  still 
continues. 

September  14,  As  we  had  five  o'clock  breakfast 
at  the  cabin,  the  rain  had  ceased,  but  the  leaden 
clouds  overhung  the  Donjeck  Valley  and  the  wind 
blew  cold  between  the  mountains.  Bidding  good- 
by  to  George  Wright,  who  was  returning  with  the 
unloaded  pack  horses  to  the  rest  of  our  party,  we 
took  our  own  saddle  horses,  with  two  pack  animals 
loaded  with  outfit  and  provisions,  and  made  a  suc- 
cessful crossing  of  the  Wolverine,  after  which  our 
course  led  up  the  valley  of  the  Donjeck,  traveling 
along  the  bars. 

During  the  morning  we  had  a  number  of  snow 
flurries,  while  back  upon  the  mountains  it  snowed 
very  hard.  As  we  plodded  along  with  a  cold  wind 
from  the  north  at  our  backs,  a  silver  gray  fox  sat  up 
on  one  of  the  bars,  five  hundred  yards  ahead  of  us, 
but  the  wary  animal  did  not  permit  closer  approach 
but  sought  safety  in  flight.  About  noon  we  came 
to  a  ford  on  the  Donjeck  River  and  plunged  into 
the  swift  current,  where  the  horses  were  shoulder 
deep  in  the  stream,  but  made  the  crossing  success- 
fully in  spite  of  being  carried  down-stream  a  short 
distance.  In  the  early  afternoon  we  reached  the 
timber  on  the  east  side  of  the  valley  where  the  trail 
starts  up  across  the  tundra-covered  Burwash  Moun- 
tains,  that  had  been  difficult  of  crossing  on  our 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       167 

journey  In,  and  which  promised  Increased  difficulties 
for  recrossing  by  reason  of  the  snow  covering. 

As  the  distance  across  the  Burwash  Mountains 
was  about  thirty-five  miles  and  there  was  no  horse 
feed  on  the  way,  we  decided  to  camp  for  the  day 
where  we  were  at  Ed.  Benson's  tent,  giving  the 
horses  a  good  rest  and  enabling  them  to  feed  well 
upon  the  pea  vine  in  the  valley.  This  also  gave  us 
a  chance  to  bake  bread  and  prepare  for  an  early  start 
In  the  morning,  with  the  hope  that  our  rested  horses 
could  make  the  long  drive  across  the  Burwash  range 
in  a  single  day. 

September  75.  As  we  tumbled  out  of  the  tent  at 
4  A.M.  the  sky  had  cleared,  but  the  air  was  bitter 
cold  and  the  small  streams  and  ponds  frozen  tight. 
The  horses  had  evidently  not  strayed  during  the 
night,  but  had  been  devoting  their  time  to  the  con- 
sumption of  pea  vine,  so  they  were  rested  and  fit  for 
the  long  drive  before  them.  Five  o'clock  found  us 
all  packed  and  on  the  trail  leading  up  the  timber 
slopes  covered  with  eight  Inches  of  snow,  and  after 
two  hours'  climbing  and  frequent  resting  we  came 
out  above  timber  line  to  the  slopes  of  the  Burwash. 
Our  crossing  had  been  difficult  enough  on  our  way 
In,  but  the  snow  made  our  continued  progress  doubly 
difficult.  The  white  mantle  appeared  sufficiently 
Innocent,  but  always  beneath  lay  the  tundra,  and  be- 
low the  tundra  the  inevitable  bog  and  water,  into 
which  man  and  beast  sank  at  every  step. 


1 68      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

At  Wade  Creek  we  found  the  surface  frozen  over 
and  very  slowly  led  our  horses  across  the  ice  as  they 
were  not  sharp  shod  and  the  crossing  was  difficult; 
sometimes  both  horses  and  men  would  break  through 
the  ice  into  the  stream  and  wet  feet  certainly  added 
nothing  to  the  crossing.  As  we  plowed  our  way 
through  the  snow  and  sank  into  the  mire,  both  our 
horses  and  ourselves  began  to  grow  weary  under  the 
strain  and  it  became  evident  we  could  not  hope  to 
get  over  the  range  that  day;  so  we  decided  to  skirt 
the  range  by  traveling  down  the  canyon  of  Burwash 
River,  where  the  footing,  even  though  rocky,  was 
less  killing  than  across  the  summits. 

Noon  found  us  picking  our  way  along  the  rocky 
gorge  where  we  traveled  more  rapidly  and  with  less 
effort.  Our  way  led  along  the  rushing  creek,  past 
many  cabins  abandoned  by  prospectors,  and  at  pres- 
ent merely  tenements  of  buried  hopes  and  vanished 
dreams  set  in  a  panorama  of  desolation  and  gloom 
as  the  snow  began  to  swirl  through  the  gorge.  At 
five  o'clock  we  decided  that  we  would  climb  out  of 
the  canyon  and  attempt  to  cut  across  the  tundra 
mountains  in  an  effort  to  leave  the  accursed  mire  be- 
hind. Baker's  horse  severely  injured  himself  in 
climbing  the  canyon  and  as  we  came  upon  the  tundra 
several  of  the  animals  were  limping  badly. 

The  snow  drove  down  upon  us  in  clouds,  but 
weary  men  leading  weary  horses  plunged  ahead 
into  the  storm,  dragging  our  feet  out  of  the  mire. 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       169 

Darkness  fell  upon  the  mountains,  but  still  we 
plodded  along,  until  eight  miles  from  the  canyon 
we  descended  into  the  timber  and  made  our  way 
down  to  the  Duke  River,  which  we  forded  at  once. 
The  horses  were  nearly  spent  and  the  rest  of  us  had 
nearly  reached  our  limit,  but  we  continued  eight 
miles  further  through  the  darkness  with  solid  foot- 
ing and  finally  reached  Morley  Bones^  cabin  at  the 
end  of  Lake  Kluane.  We  have  made  thirty-five 
miles  to-day  across  the  mountains  and  down  the 
rocky  canyon,  traveling  most  of  the  distance  on  foot, 
and  we  are  so  entirely  gone  that  we  will  not  con- 
tinue our  journey  until  late  in  the  morning. 

September  16,  It  has  snowed  all  night  and  the 
storm  still  raged  as  we  came  out  of  Bones'  cabin 
this  morning  and  decided  to  make  a  start  down  the 
trail  along  the  shore  of  the  Lake.  It  was  ten  o'clock 
when  we  left  the  cabin  and  started  south;  the  horses 
are  lame,  but  the  footing  along  the  gravel  beaches 
is  solid,  and  there  are  no  mountains  to  cross  to-day. 
We  traveled  very  slowly,  letting  the  animals  take 
their  own  time,  and  since  the  snow  continued  we 
put  up  tent  at  four  o'clock,  having  made  twenty 
miles,  and  turned  out  the  horses  to  graze  on  some 
very  good  grass. 

September  ij.  Very  cold  and  snowing  as  we 
made  our  start  this  morning,  but  the  north  wind 
drove  off  the  storm  and  we  made  excellent  progress 
down  the  lake.     As  we  went  south  the  snow  became 


lyo      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

less  in  depth,  until  near  the  end  of  the  lake  there  was 
none  whatever  near  the  lake  level,  though  the  high 
slopes  of  the  mountains  were  heavily  blanketed.  In 
the  late  afternoon  the  trail  led  upward  along  the 
sides  of  the  mountains  that  came  down  sharply  to 
the  lake,  and  at  five  o'clock  we  came  to  Baker's 
cabin  on  the  Slims  River  beyond  the  lower  end  of 
the  lake.  Looking  up  the  river  are  the  snow  peaks 
at  whose  foot  lies  the  SHms  Glacier,  near  which  we 
hope  to  camp  to-morrow  night  and  begin  our  hunt 
for  goats.  We  will  remain  at  Baker's  cabin,  how- 
ever, for  the  night  as  the  horses  are  too  played  out 
to  travel  farther  and  the  horse  feed  on  the  near-by 
meadows  is  excellent. 

September  i8.  We  left  two  of  the  horses  on  the 
meadows  near  Baker's  cabin,  as  they  seem  to  have 
been  done  up  by  the  hard  journey  across  the  moun- 
tains, and  by  turning  them  out  for  a  few  days'  rest 
and  grazing  upon  the  meadow  lands  we  have  hopes 
that  they  may  get  into  better  condition.  The  trail 
up  the  Slims  River  led  along  the  glacial  gravel  beds 
at  the  foot  of  the  mountains  on  our  right,  while  on 
the  left  were  the  two-mile-wide  flats  of  quicksands 
through  which  course  several  branches  of  the  Slims, 
a  glacial  stream,  rising  about  fifteen  miles  above 
Lake  Kluane  in  the  ice  fields  that  have  torn  their 
way  through  the  coast  range  mountains. 

The  trail  was  level  for  most  of  the  distance  and 
the  footing  generally  good  until  we  came  to  the  last 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       171 

five  miles  of  the  course,  where  we  led  the  horses  up 
a  ravine  of  sharp  bowlders  and  came  out  on  a 
plateau  thickly  covered  with  a  dense  growth  lof 
willows.  Baker  had  once  cut  a  trail  through  the 
willow  thicket,  but  the  trail  was  almost  completely 
overgrown,  so  we  smashed  our  way  through  for  two 
miles  and  finally  emerged  on  a  hillside  and  passed 
down  into  the  timber,  where  we  decided  to  camp. 

The  muddy  glacial  water  of  Kennedy  Creek 
flowed  close  to  the  place  we  had  selected,  the  horse 
feed  on  a  hill  close  by  was  excellent,  and  the  timber 
provided  shelter  from  the  winds  and  a  plentiful 
supply  of  fuel  for  our  fires,  so  that  the  camp  seemed 
a  veritable  find  In  contrast  to  our  various  willow- 
patch  camps  In  the  snows  we  had  left  behind.  As 
we  expected  to  remain  here  several  days  we  went 
through  the  neglected  performance  of  putting  up  a 
tent,  cutting  firewood,  and  making  a  real  fireplace  to 
do  our  cooking. 

Then  we  went  to  the  edge  of  the  timber  to  look 
over  the  country.  Opposite  our  camp  the  Slims 
Glacier  came  out  of  the  snow-capped  range  like  an 
Immense  Icy  tongue,  with  a  considerable  push 
moraine  piled  up  along  its  front  and  sides,  while 
across  the  Ice  fields  the  mighty  snow  wall  of  the 
range  shadowed  lavender  under  the  magic  of  the 
setting  sun.  To  the  right  of  the  glacier  the  bare 
slopes  of  a  low  mountain  were  spotted  white  with 
forty-two  sheep  feeding  upward,  while  just  above 


172      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

our  camp,  four  miles  up  Kennedy  Creek,  were  the 
rocky  fronts  of  the  goat  range  Baker  had  selected 
as  the  paradise  for  these  long-haired  climbers  of  the 
heights. 

It  was  somewhat  of  a  surprise  to  learn  that  goats 
and  sheep  were  to  be  found  in  such  close  proximity 
to  each  other,  as  the  range  where  we  had  located  the 
sheep  was  separated  from  the  goat  range  by  only  the 
narrow  canyon  on  Kennedy  Creek  not  one  hundred 
yards  across;  yet  Baker  informs  me  that  he  has  for 
years  observed  these  different  animals  living  as  near 
neighbors,  but  has  never  seen  them  ranging  together. 

Our  fresh  meat  supply  is  entirely  exhausted,  and 
as  we  plan  to  hunt  goats  to-morrow  we  have  boiled 
a  supply  of  rice  for  our  breakfast  and  supper,  and 
after  our  long  days  of  hard  travel  coming  out  from 
the  St.  Clair  we  once  more  gave  ourselves  up  to  the 
enjoyment  of  sitting  in  front  of  a  real  camp  fire  and 
planning  our  next  day's  hunt. 


CHAPTER  XI 

"  It's  the  great,  big,  broad  land  'way  up  yonder, 
It's  the  forests  where  silence  has  lease; 
It's  the  beauty  that  thrills  me  with  wonder, 
It's  the  stillness  that  fills  me  with  peace." 

September  ig.  Daylight  found  us  rolling  out  of 
our  sleeping  robes  with  a  lively  interest  in  the 
weather  conditions  confronting  us,  and  as  the  day 
dawned  clear,  cold,  and  cloudless,  with  the  mountain 
tops  unobscured  by  mists,  sharply  etched  against 
the  heavens,  we  hastily  dispatched  our  Chinese 
coolie  diet  of  rice  and  started  up  Kennedy  Creek 
gorge.  Baker  had  predicted  goats  would  be  found 
at  the  bottom  of  the  canyon  feeding  on  willows 
where  we  would  have  some  shooting  without  climb- 
ing the  rocky  heights,  but  Baker  was  a  poor  prophet 
in  this  respect  as  we  hunted  up  the  gorge  three  miles 
without  seeing  game.  A  small  canyon  ran  off  at 
right  angles  to  Kennedy  Creek  Canyon,  back  into 
the  mountain  a  mile,  and  ended  in  an  abrupt  slope 
which  climbed  toward  the  summit,  and  we  decided  to 
go  up  this  canyon  and  then  take  a  look  at  the  range 
from  a  favorable  vantage  point. 

We  had  hardly  started  along  the  sharp  bowlder- 
173 


174      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

strewn  course,  when  far  up  the  gorge  and  almost  at 
its  upper  end  we  saw  two  goats  climbing  down  one 
side  of  the  rocky  wall.  The  writer  had  never  seen 
a  mountain  goat  before,  and  sat  down  on  a  rock  to 
study  these  animals  through  the  glasses,  for  it  was 
difficult  to  believe  that  they  were  not  polar  bear,  as 
their  long  shaggy  white  coats,  their  immense  bulk, 
and  their  method  of  climbing  were  strongly  sugges- 
tive of  the  white  bear;  but  the  short  ebony  spike 
horns  and  the  long  beards  finally  brought  home  the 
conviction  that  these  animals  were  really  goats. 
We  watched  them  climb  down  the  almost  perpen- 
dicular, but  jagged  face  of  the  canyon,  and  then  with 
apparent  ease  climb  up  the  opposite  wall,  an  under- 
taking quite  beyond  our  wildest  fancy. 

After  they  had  disappeared  over  the  rim,  we  con- 
tinued our  climb  and  reached  the  end  of  the  canyon, 
where  began  our  ascent  of  the  slope.  Part  way  up, 
where  we  had  a  clear  view  of  the  slope  from  the 
rim  over  which  the  goats  had  disappeared,  Wolcott, 
who  was  in  advance,  located  the  two  animals,  but 
with  a  fine  sense  of  sportsmanship  refrained  from 
shooting  until  the  writer,  following  behind  the 
guides,  should  come  up  to  participate.  It  was  an 
up-hill  shot  at  three  hundred  yards  with  the  game 
moving  away  from  us,  but  it  seemed  wise  to  take 
the  chance,  as  we  had  no  opportunity  whatever  of 
climbing  around  and  heading  the  game;  so  I  told 
my  hunting  companion  to  name  his  goat  and  com- 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       175 

mence  firing,  while  I  would  reserve  my  fire  at  the 
other  goat  until  Wolcott  had  gotten  off  his  first  shot. 
Wolcott's  shot  was  a  miss  but  mine  went  home,  and 
the  animal  rolled  over  and  over  down  the  slope  into 
a  gorge,  while  its  companion  vanished  over  a  rocky 
ridge. 

We  then  climbed  up  the  rocky  slope,  and  Wolcott 
attempted  to  follow  the  goat  he  had  missed,  travel- 
ing along  a  rocky  ledge  with  a  perpendicular  drop 
below  and  a  precipitous  front  above,  while  the 
writer  continued  his  climb  up  the  mountain,  and 
half  way  up  circled  around  the  face  of  the  slope  for 
a  mile  and  a  half.  On  topping  one  of  the  rock  ribs 
that  led  up  to  the  crest,  five  goats  were  observed 
below,  resting  on  the  edge  of  a  jagged  rock  shelf, 
and  I  studied  them  through  the  glasses  and  waited 
for  Wolcott,  as  two  of  the  animals  were  excellent 
specimens.  As  Wolcott  failed  to  appear  I  sent  the 
guide  back  to  look  for  him,  but  the  guide  returned, 
reporting  my  companion  was  nowhere  to  be  seen; 
so  I  began  to  "  smoke  up  "  the  game.  I  called  it 
*'  smoking  up,''  because  my  first  three  shots  at  two 
hundred  and  fifty  yards  at  the  motionless  animals 
were  miserable  misses,  but  the  fourth  shot  at  the 
jumping  animals  went  through  behind  the  shoulder 
and  the  goat  rolled  over  the  edge,  while  the  next 
shot  wounded  the  second  animal  in  the  body,  after 
which  I  ceased  firing  at  the  others  and  ran  forward 
to  where  my  two  goats  had  gone  over. 


176      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

The  first  was  nowhere  to  be  seen,  and  had  prob- 
ably rolled  down  thousands  of  feet;  the  wounded 
one,  in  spite  of  being  badly  hit,  had  climbed  down 
two  hundred  yards  of  lava  precipice,  where  the 
writer  could  not  possibly  follow  without  a  rope,  so 
I  put  an  end  to  him  with  a  shot  from  above  and  he 
rolled  down  Into  the  unknown.  We  sat  down  to 
look  at  the  country  and  try  to  fix  In  our  minds  the 
place  where  my  game  had  vanished.  In  order  to  get 
them  from  below,  and  as  we  smoked  our  pipes  we 
located  two  more  goats  over  a  ridge  that  edged  a 
canyon  half  a  mile  away;  but  we  did  not  disturb 
these,  deciding  to  reserve  them  for  Wolcott,  who 
came  up  to  us  an  hour  later.  He  had  followed  the 
goat  along  a  narrow  ledge  for  a  mile,  and  the  ledge 
came  to  an  abrupt  ending,  and  the  goat  had  disap- 
peared. Wolcott  could  not  go  forward,  and  after 
several  attempts  found  he  could  neither  climb  up 
nor  down  the  rocky  face,  so  he  retraced  his  steps 
and,  looking  very  weary  and  dripping  with  perspir- 
ation, came  to  us. 

We  told  him  of  the  two  goats  we  nad  reserved 
for  him,  but  they  had  vanished  over  the  ridge  Into 
the  canyon,  so  with  Hayden  he  started  to  the  sum- 
mit. In  order  to  climb  around  the  end  of  the  canyon, 
while  Baker  and  myself  were  to  go  after  my  game 
and  skin  out  the  heads.  We  started  down  the  steep 
slope,  and  had  gone  about  two  hundred  feet  when 
we  found  a  sheer  drop  into  space  which  Interested 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       177 

us  not  at  all,  so  we  climbed  up  the  slope,  and  de- 
cided that  ifi  order  to  get  down  we  would  have  to 
climb  a  thousand  feet  higher,  cross  over  the  head  of 
a  draw,  and  come  down  the  canyon.  When  we 
started  down,  the  slide  rock  went  out  from  under  us, 
but  we  kept  our  feet,  and  simply  permitted  ourselves 
to  be  carried  along  with  the  moving  rock  stream 
until  the  slide  and  its  passengers  ceased  to  go  for- 
ward. After  making  our  way  down  to  the  tundra 
bench,  we  looked  back  at  the  course  we  had  taken 
and  held  a  private  thanksgiving  upon  our  success- 
ful descent,  with  a  strong  "  never  again  "  resolution 
such  as  one  makes  about  January  first. 

From  the  tundra  bench  the  face  of  the  mountain 
bore  no  resemblance  whatever  to  the  topography 
we  had  carefully  fixed  in  our  minds  for  the  purpose 
of  locating  our  dead  game,  and  looking  up  from  be- 
low we  utterly  failed  to  locate  the  place  where  the 
game  had  rolled  over.  Numerous  canyons  paral- 
leling each  other  like  immense  stalls  ran  back  into 
the  mountain,  the  ends  of  the  stalls  being  closed  by 
the  rocky  wall  that  rose  up  thousands  of  feet  to  a 
shelf,  then  more  of  rocky  slope,  another  shelf,  and 
finally  the  serrated  pinnacles  cutting  the  sky.  Some- 
where in  one  of  these  canyons  were  the  remains  of 
those  goats,  but  to  locate  them  was  not  quite  so 
easy  as  might  appear,  for  we  climbed  up  and  down 
canyon  walls  for  two  hours  before  reaching  the  first 
goat,  which  had  rolled  all  the  way  from  the  pin- 


178      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

nacles  to  within  a  hundred  feet  of  our  level  before 
he  had  lodged  in  the  rock.  His  bones  were  broken, 
but  his  horns  were  intact,  and  he  had  been  killed  by 
the  shot  and  not  by  his  fearful  descent. 

His  horns  were  eight  inches  long  and  the  annular 
rings  seven  in  number,  while  his  beard  and  coat 
were  in  excellent  pillage.  After  skinning  him  and 
taking  his  head,  we  climbed  to  the  next  canyon  where 
the  second  dead  goat  lay,  but  just  above  him  on 
the  slope  sat  a  very  large  and  very  live  goat.  I 
looked  him  over  with  my  glasses,  and  the  longer  I 
observed  him  the  larger  he  looked,  until  temptation 
was  too  strong  and  it  was  decided  to  add  him  to  the 
collection.  A  short  stalk  brought  me  to  within  two 
hundred  and  fifty  yards'  range  and,  taking  a  rest, 
one  shot  plunged  through  the  animal's  heart,  and 
stone  dead  he  rolled  past  us  and  lodged  a  thousand 
feet  below. 

One  gets  the  habit  of  using  the  binoculars  upon 
the  landscape,  even  when  he  has  finished  the  day's 
shooting,  and  after  shooting  this  goat  I  beheld  a 
tiny  white  speck  against  the  blue  on  the  sky  line  at 
the  very  top  of  the  rock  pinnacles  of  the  distant 
summit.  As  I  continued  to  look  at  the  white 
climber  of  the  heights,  he  seemed  to  exert  a  hypnotic 
influence  upon  me,  and  I  announced  to  Baker  that 
while  I  had  finished  my  shooting  I  had  not  concluded 
the  hunting,  but  intended  to  break  the  newly  formed 
"  never  again  "  resolve  by  climbing  for  that  goat 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      179 

with  my  camera.  Baker  said  I  could  never  climb 
within  photographic  distance  of  the  animal  as  he 
would  become  alarmed  and  make  off,  but  I  had  the 
notion  that  the  other  side  of  the  pinnacle  was  a 
smooth  precipice,  down  which  even  a  goat  could  not 
descend,  and  he  could  only  come  down  towards  me 
and  escape  to  one  side,  and  that  he  could  not  accom- 
plish if  I  should  succeed  in  coming  as  close  as  one 
thousand  feet. 

Leaving  my  untasted  lunch,  gun,  cartridges,  and 
everything  of  weight  wedged  In  the  rocks  and  with 
only  camera  on  my  back,  I  started  to  climb,  using 
hands  and  feet  to  equal  advantage  on  the  lava  cliffs 
and  making  progress  at  such  a  slow  rate  that  the 
goat  evidently  felt  pity  rather  than  alarm,  as  he 
continued  to  enjoy  the  air  of  the  rare  altitudes  and 
observe  my  climbing.  Sometimes  the  course  I  was 
obliged  to  adopt  led  across  loose  rock  slides,  across 
which  I  made  considerable  speed  in  order  not  to  be 
carried  down  to  the  bottom  of  the  canyon  before 
making  the  traverse,  and  this  is  rather  good  sport  if 
carried  out  successfully.  Finally  I  reached  an  alti- 
tude thousands  of  feet  up  and  about  one  thousand 
below  the  goat,  whose  picture  I  was  then  certain 
would  hang  In  my  animal  gallery;  but  those  last 
thousand  feet  were  a  heart-breaking  climb,  as  I  was 
attempting  the  ascent  of  a  concave  bowl,  the  steep 
sides  of  which  were  unhealthy  rock  slides  up  which 
I  zigzagged,  running  a  hundred  feet  at  an  upward 


i8o      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

slant  to  reach  a  resting  place  of  some  welcome  patch 
of  large  bowlders  that  did  not  start  down  the  moun- 
tain under  one's  feet. 

Two  hundred  feet  from  the  sky  line  I  reached  the 
solid  rock  face  of  the  pinnacles  from  which  the 
slopes  of  slide  rock  had  fallen  through  the  ages,  and 
began  the  final  stalk.  On  my  way  up,  the  conviction 
had  been  growing  that  anywhere  a  four-footed  goat 
could  go,  a  two-legged,  two-handed  man  could  fol- 
low, but  my  theory  was  utterly  shattered  on  that 
cliff,  as  the  very  best  I  could  do  was  to  reach  a  point 
fifty  feet  below  my  photographic  subject,  where  I 
succeeded  in  wedging  my  feet  into  a  kindly  disposed 
crevasse,  and  where  without  disturbing  a  nice  bal- 
ance I  managed  to  unsling  the  camera  case  from  my 
shoulders  and  set  the  apparatus  for  a  proper  focus. 

The  goat  was  not  an  old  one  nor  remarkably 
large,  but  he  made  a  wonderful  spot  of  white  life 
as  he  posed  upon  the  sky  line  against  the  infinity  of 
blue  and  gazed  upon  me  with  a  benevolent  interest. 
However,  the  front  view  did  not  please  me,  and  as 
I  could  not  shift  my  position  it  became  necessary  to 
induce  the  goat  to  change  his  to  a  desirable  profile, 
and  this  was  a  bit  difficult  since  the  writer  is  not 
familiar  with  the  goat  language.  Several  methods 
were  tried  out:  shouting  produced  no  evident  un- 
easiness, singing  was  met  with  a  look  of  deep 
disgust  from  my  heavily  whiskered  friend,  but  re- 
membering "  music  hath  its  charms,"  I  began  to 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       i8i 

whistle  an  ancient  tune,  "  Pull  for  the  shore,  Sailor," 
and  under  the  spell  of  the  melodious  tune,  or  pos- 
sibly to  take  a  look  about  to  locate  '*  the  shore,"  my 
goat  deliberately  gave  me  a  profile  pose  and  I  has- 
tily exposed  the  film. 

However,  I  had  not  made  that  climb  for  merely 
a  single  view,  and  I  continued  to  whistle  to  the  goat 
in  an  effort  to  lure  him  down  from  his  rocky  perch, 
but  without  avail.  It  is  a  gox)d  motto  from  the 
graduate  school  of  experience  that  "  where  persua- 
sion fails,  coercion  seldom  succeeds,"  but  possibly 
the  mountain  goat  is  an  exception,  for  I  found  out 
that  by  breaking  off  pieces  of  rock  from  the  cliff  to 
which  I  clung  with  one  hand  for  balance  and  hurling 
them  at  the  ridge  just  behind  the  animal  he  became 
considerably  annoyed  and  came  down  the  pinnacle 
twenty-five  feet  below  the  sky  line,  where  he  stood 
for  a  becoming  side  view,  and  then  before  going 
back  to  the  crest  he  turned  to  look  at  me  for  a  third 
picture.  As  I  was  about  to  begin  my  descent  he 
posed  again  upon  the  knife-blade  ridge,  looking  like 
an  ancient  white-robed  Magi  priest;  superior,  aloof, 
impersonal,  with  his  face  to  the  declining  sun, 
calmly  gazing  along  the  golden-rayed  path. 

The  descent  proved  to  be  considerably  more  diffi- 
cult than  the  ascent,  chiefly  for  the  reason  that  part 
of  the  way,  clinging  with  my  face  to  the  cliff  and 
backed  by  space  merely,  it  became  necessary  to  feel 
the  way  downward  with  my  toes  seeking  a  secure 


1 82      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

footing  lower  down,  before  releasing  finger  hold  on 
the  rocks  for  a  new  grasp.  On  the  rock  slides 
travel  was  rapid,  as  I  merely  devoted  my  attention 
to  keeping  footing  as  the  sliding  mass  bore  me  along, 
but  particular  attention  was  given  to  the  little  detail 
of  getting  out  of  the  slide  before  it  went  over  a 
sheer  drop.  The  smooth  slopes  of  finely  powdered 
lava  frozen  hard  and  covered  with  snow,  through 
which  the  boot  calks  did  not  bite  into  the  footing, 
gave  considerable  difficulty,  and  several  times  my 
feet  went  out  from  under  me  and  I  started  to  slide, 
but  good  luck  was  my  guardian  and  success  crowned 
my  rather  desperate  efforts  to  check  the  descent, 
with  only  a  few  bruises. 

On  reaching  Baker,  I  found  he  had  taken  off  the 
heads  and  hides  of  all  the  goats,  and  we  began  to 
measure  the  two  heads  he  had  finished  dressing;  one 
of  them  had  horns  eight  and  one-half  inches  long, 
while  the  last  goat  gave  us  a  horn  length  of  nine 
inches,  both  showing  seven  years  of  age.  The 
serio-comic  appearance  of  these  woolly  creatures  is 
somewhat  heightened  by  the  pantaloon  effect  of  the 
legs,  as  the  thick  fur  comes  down  the  leg  and  then 
stops  about  ten  inches  above  the  foot;  this  is  due 
to  the  animal  having  worn  off  the  long  wool  about 
the  lower  leg  from  walking  in  the  rocks,  giving  the 
appearance  of  trousers  pulled  up  ten  inches  above 
the  hoof. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  the  uninitiated  to  learn 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       183 

that  these  mountain  goats  have  a  very  long,  thick 
under-coat  of  white  wool,  while  the  domestic  goat 
has  only  a  hairy  coat;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
domestic  sheep  has  a  coat  of  wool,  while  the  white 
mountain  sheep  has  no  wool  whatever,  its  pellage 
consisting  of  rather  coarse  hair  of  a  maximum  win- 
ter length  of  three  inches. 

Baker  had  filled  a  canvas  bag  with  goat  fat  and 
goat  meat,  the  latter  being  for  our  frypan,  so  we 
loaded  ourselves  with  camera,  rifle,  heads,  hides, 
and  meat,  and  with  arms  full  of  plunder  and  with 
various  things  strapped  to  our  backs  began  to  work 
our  way  downward,  sometimes  falling  on  the  rocks, 
sometimes  sliding  a  short  distance,  but  with  no  bad 
results  except  minor  bruises.  We  began  to  feel  that 
the  bottom  of  the  canyon  was  quite  near  when  we 
saw  Wolcott  and  Hayden,  as  mere  fly  specks,  wait- 
ing for  us  as  they  sat  on  the  bowlders  and  enjoyed 
our  weird  descent. 

As  we  walked  down  the  canyon,  following  the 
creek  to  our  camp,  Wolcott  told  me  that  after  leav- 
ing us  Hayden  and  himself  had  climbed  to  the  upper 
end  of  the  canyon  into  which  the  two  goats  had 
vanished  and  had  located  the  game,  climbing  the 
walls  on  the  other  side  four  hundred  yards  away. 
Since  it  was  impossible  to  get  a  closer  range,  he  had 
begun  shooting  and  after  several  wide  shots  finally 
killed  the  goat,  to  reach  which  presented  difficult 
problems   of   descent.     Wolcott   finally   selected   a 


1 84      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

smooth  incline  covered  with  snow,  and  at  the  start 
his  feet  went  out  from  under  him  and  he  began  to 
slide;  not  able  to  check  his  speed,  he  managed 
to  flop  over  with  his  face  to  the  Incline,  and  then, 
by  using  toes,  knees,  elbows,  and  fingers  as  points  of 
contact,  succeeded  In  stopping  the  downward  plunge, 
but  not  a  moment  too  soon,  as  the  slope  ended  in 
an  abrupt  drop  of  immense  height  to  the  jagged 
rocks  below.  It  was  a  close  call  and  my  companion, 
considerably  shaken  by  the  experience  and  the  close 
view  of  the  precipice,  made  his  way  to  the  rock  foot- 
ing and  finally  reached  the  goat  In  the  canyon;  after 
skinning  which,  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  he 
had  enough  goat  hunting  to  last  some  time.  Wol- 
cott's  goat  had  a  horn  length  of  seven  and  one-half 
inches  with  six  annular  rings  and  long  whiskers  and 
excellent  pellage. 

For  supper  we  dined  upon  rice  and  fried  goat's 
meat,  which  was  almost  as  tough  and  unpalatable  as 
grizzly  bear,  so  we  filled  up  mostly  on  rice  and  tea, 
and  then  lying  In  front  of  the  fire  held  a  council  to 
consider  our  plans  for  next  day.  Since  our  boots 
are  nearly  gone,  and  our  calks  torn  out  of  the  soles, 
and  we  are  knee-sprung,  bruised,  and  sore  from  the 
day's  experience  on  the  mountains,  we  decided  In 
view  of  the  fact  that  we  had  all  the  goats  we  desired 
that  to-morrow  would  find  us  on  the  trail  back  to 
Kluane  Lake. 

September  20.     We  were  up  early  this  morning 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON       185 

and  devoted  several  hours  to  fleshing  and  cleaning 
the  goat  trophies,  after  which  we  packed  up  and 
started  back.  Part  of  the  distance  we  walked  and 
gave  the  guides  a  chance  to  ride,  as  we  only  had  two 
saddle  horses,  and  the  guides  were  quite  as  sore  and 
weary  as  ourselves  from  yesterday's  work.  Three 
o'clock  found  us  back  at  Baker's  cabin  on  the  Slims 
River,  where  we  spent  the  night  after  a  supper  of 
rice,  bread,  tea,  and  scrambled  goat  brains,  which 
were  rather  palatable  since  they  were  not  tough. 

September  21.  Taking  but  two  of  the  horses, 
Bullion  and  Jim,  and  leaving  the  other  animals  to 
graze  on  the  meadows  until  the  rest  of  our  party 
should  come  along  for  them,  we  made  our  way 
across  the  mud  flats  and  came  to  the  half-mile-wide 
Slims  River,  where  there  is  a  skiff  on  either  bank 
for  ferrying  across.  Loading  the  boat  with  our 
outfit.  Baker  and  Hayden  started  to  row  across  and 
soon  found  the  craft  spurting  water  through  the 
open  seams;  they  rowed  hard  and  the  boat  went 
lower  into  the  water,  until  it  sank  on  a  sand  bar  on 
the  other  shore,  where  they  saved  everything,  but 
all  the  stuff  was  wet.  Baker  returned  with  the  less 
leaky  boat,  and  the  writer  sat  in  the  stern  with  a 
long  rope  around  the  neck  of  the  horse  "  Bullion  *' 
for  the  purpose  of  towing  him,  so  as  to  avoid  quick- 
sands. "  Bullion,"  however,  was  not  minded  to 
follow,  and  before  we  landed  him  on  the  bank  he 
nearly  committed  suicide  in  the  quicksands. 


1 86      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

On  opening  my  case  of  exposed  films  my  heart 
sank  as  I  beheld  the  case  full  of  water,  and  while 
Baker  returned  for  Wolcott  and  the  other  horse  the 
writer  took  out  the  water-soaked  film  packs  and 
placed  them  in  the  sun  to  dry  out  somewhat;  it  looks 
as  if  they  were  all  utterly  ruined,  which  is  a  great 
loss  as  the  photographic  record  is  quite  complete. 
(On  reaching  civilization  it  was  found  that,  while 
some  of  the  pictures  were  utterly  ruined  and  others 
damaged,  a  considerable  number  were  in  no  way 
harmed.) 

After  packing  our  water-soaked  outfit  on  the 
horses,  we  all  walked  along  the  shore  of  Lake  Klu- 
ane  and  came  to  the  end  of  the  horse  trail  and  the 
beginning  of  the  wagon  road,  where  we  put  together 
Hayden's  buckboard  and  got  out  some  grub  we  had 
cached  on  our  way  in  and  made  ready  for  our  start 
the  next  morning  for  Whitehorse.  Baker  received 
word  his  wife  was  ill,  so  we  regretfully  parted  from 
this  ever-genial,  kindly  man,  who  had  worked  with 
us  on  the  long  trail. 

September  22.  Six  oVlock  found  us  rolling  up 
the  slopes  of  Boutelier  summit  and  with  a  stop  for 
lunch  at  Jarvis  Creek,  we  passed  over  Bear  Creek 
summit  as  darkness  and  snow  began  to  fall,  and 
reached  the  foot  of  the  mountain  at  seven  o'clock, 
where  we  found  a  cabin  open  to  occupancy.  Near 
by  was  a  band  of  Indians  whose  camp  the  writer  be- 
gan to  investigate,  which  resulted  in  the  discovery 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      187 

of  a  year-old  moose  the  Indians  had  hung  up  about 
five  days  before.  Since  we  had  no  fresh  meat  the 
writer  gave  the  Indians  a  package  of  tea  and  a 
check  upon  a  bank  at  Whitehorse,  and  in  return  re- 
ceived a  candle,  some  fat  for  frying  purposes,  and 
a  hindquarter  of  moose. 

I  had  a  most  amusing  time  explaining  to  the  sav- 
ages that  the  bank  check  was  money  and  that  Shorty 
Chambers  the  trader  would  take  the  paper  and  give 
them  in  exchange  real  money  or  provisions  of  equal 
value.  One  old  fellow  who  had  been  listening  to 
my  explanation  for  some  time  finally  began  to  see 
daylight  and  said:  "  White  man  no  carry  money; 
all  same  make  him  money  any  time  write  him  in 
book  —  good."  Returning  to  our  shack  laden  with 
the  hindquarter  of  moose,  a  candle  for  light,  and 
grease  for  cooking,  Hayden  and  Wolcott  began  to 
grin  and  comment  upon  my  abilities  as  a  trader  who 
could  go  out  with  a  stock  in  trade  of  one-half 
pound  package  of  tea  and  return  staggering  under 
a  load  of  plunder,  but  Wolcott  does  not  know  about 
that  check,  though  he  is  suspicious.  However,  we 
fried  an  immense  pile  of  tender  moose  steaks  and  in 
the  warmth  of  the  cabin  sat  down  to  a  very  ample 
supper,  while  outside  the  wind  howled  and  the  hail 
and  snow  combined  to  make  a  disagreeable  night  in 
the  open. 

September  2j.  This  has  been  a  gloomy,  gray, 
cold  day,  but  the  horses  have  made  excellent  time 


1 88      CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON 

over  the  bottom  lands  of  the  Dezadeash  River  and 
at  six  o'clock  we  camped  thirty-seven  miles  ahead 
near  some  Indians  who  had  been  into  the  range 
shooting  sheep  and  goats,  whose  meat  was  hanging 
up  being  smoked  for  winter. 

September  24.  After  an  early  start  in  the  cold, 
gray  morning,  by  hard  driving  we  reached  the  trad- 
ing post  of  Shorty  Chambers  at  Champagne  Land- 
ing, where  we  decided  to  rest  the  horses  for  a  couple 
of  hours  while  we  dined  with  Chambers  at  his  im- 
maculate cabin,  presided  over  by  his  very  kind  and 
wholesome-looking  Indian  wife. 

Within  the  last  two  years  a  number  of  the  Yukon 
traders  have  gone  into  the  business  of  raising  black, 
silver  and  cross  foxes,  which  some  have  carried 
on  with  considerable  success,  among  whom  was 
Chambers.  We  inspected  his  large  log  corral  in 
which  were  a  number  of  these  valuable  silver  foxes, 
and  took  several  photographs  of  the  animals  which, 
alive,  are  worth  four  thousand  to  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars per  pair.  The  animals  are  caught  in  their  dens 
in  the  early  spring  when  still  small  and  are  then  sold 
by  the  Indian  trappers  to  the  men  who  are  engaged 
in  fox  raising;  many  of  the  fox  pups  die  from  a  dis- 
ease closely  resembling  distemper  of  the  dog,  but 
larger  experience  will  doubtless  overcome  this  draw- 
back. 

After  dinner  we  said  farewells  to  Chambers  and 
continued  eastward,  stopping  twice  to  shoot  prairie 


CAMP  FIRES  IN  THE  YUKON      189 

chickens,  and  at  dark  with  the  snow  falling  heavily 
on  the  valley  we  came  to  a  wayside  cabin  belonging 
to  Chambers,  where  we  cooked  supper  and  spent 
the  night. 

September  25.  The  weather  cleared,  but  the 
wind  blew  cold  as  we  circled  about  the  hills  along 
the  Dawson  stage  trail,  steadily  putting  mile  after 
mile  behind  us  until  at  nightfall  we  reached  the 
automatic,  current-driven  ferry  at  the  Tahkini 
River,  where  we  decided  to  remain  for  the  night  as 
one  of  the  horses  had  gone  lame  and  we  wished  not 
to  drive  him  farther  without  a  rest. 

September  26,  Five  o'clock  found  us  rolling 
along  on  the  last  stage  of  our  journey  and  the  morn- 
ing broke  into  joyous  radiance  as  the  sun  came  over 
the  snow  crests  of  the  mountains  along  the  Yukon 
River,  twenty-two  miles  away;  yet  there  was  nothing 
of  cheerfulness  as  we  drove  ahead  along  the  sunlit 
wagon  road  with  the  oppressive  realization  that  be- 
hind us  lay  the  God-given  mighty  wilderness  of  maj- 
esty, freedom  and  peace,  while  each  succeeding  mile 
brought  us  nearer  to  the  man-made,  rattle,  constric- 
tions, and  pettiness  of  a  complex  civilization.  In 
sullen  silence  we  topped  the  last  pine-clad  hill  and 
rolled  down  the  slope  to  the  affronting  railway  and 
telegraph  station;  our  long  trail  in  the  Yukon  had 
come  to  an  end. 


APPENDIX  . 

OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  FAUNA  OF  THE 

EASTERN  PORTION  OF  THE 

ST.  ELIAS  RANGE 

The  narrative  contained  in  the  preceding  pages  has 
sought  to  set  forth,  among  other  matters,  a  correct  and  ac- 
curate record  of  the  writer's  observations  of  animal  life  in 
that  part  of  the  Yukon  Territory  covered  by  my  expedition ; 
that  the  record  is  not  complete  is  a  matter  of  regret,  but 
obviously  the  time  spent  in  this  region  was  all  too  short 
for  exhaustive  and  conclusive  observation.  The  writer  has 
only  attempted  to  chronicle  his  observations  of  the  creatures 
of  the  wild  in  the  connection  of  hunting  them,  and  to  this 
phase  he  deems  it  advisable  and  possibly  of  interest,  at  least 
to  the  naturalist,  to  add  his  further  observations,  and  also 
to  set  forth  some  facts  gained  from  several  of  his  guides, 
who  have  lived  near  and  hunted  in  this  region  for  years, 
whose  observations  of  the  fauna  have  not  only  covered  a 
very  considerable  period,  but  have  been  made  with  a  keen 
and  intelligent  interest  and  desire  to  know  the  habits  of  ani- 
mals of  this  locality.  The  facts  gained  from  these  sources 
the  writer  regards  as  reliable  and  particularly  valuable  for 
the  extension  of  knowledge  of  animal  life. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  these  observations  are  con- 
fined to  animal  life  in  the  St.  Elias  Range  above  the  Generc 

190 


APPENDIX  191 

River,  and  the  St.  Clair,  which  are  tributaries  of  the  White 
River;  and  the  Wolverine  and  Donjeck  rivers,  as  well  as 
along  the  mountains  walling  the  west  shore  of  Lake  Kluane 
and  the  Slims  River.  Other  conditions  may  obtain  in  other 
parts  of  the  wide  extended  Yukon  Territory  where  geo- 
graphical, topographical,  climatic,  and  food  conditions  vary, 
and  produce  varying  faunal  types  and  habits  of  life. 

SHEEP 

Of  the  habits  of  mountain  sheep  found  north  of  the  well- 
defined  range  of  the  Ovis  Canadensis,  known  as  the  "  Rocky 
Mountain  "  sheep,  nothing  additional  can  be  predicated  by 
the  writer,  since  all  of  the  northern  sheep,  whether  the  all- 
white  Dall  sheep,  the  Fannin  sheep  with  white  heads,  necks 
and  breast  and  gray  body,  or  the  Stone  sheep  of  a  more  uni- 
form dark  gray  color  above  with  only  the  abdomen  and  lower 
and  posterior  parts  white,  have  practically  the  same  habits. 

All  of  these  sheep  are  by  nature  very  wild  and  timid; 
dwelling  above  timber  line,  eating  the  same  food,  having  the 
same  general  environment  and  climatic  conditions,  not  only  is 
there  scarcely  any  variation  in  their  habits,  but  even  their 
size,  weight,  and  measurement  are  substantially  the  same, 
having  due  regard  to  age  and  sex. 

The  sheep  observed  and  referred  to  by  the  writer  on  this 
expedition  are  all  the  pure  white  Dall  sheep,  Ovis  dalli,  as 
not  a  single  specimen  of  Fannin  sheep  nor  even  the  Stone 
sheep  was  seen,  and  the  guides  and  Indians  frequenting  the 
game  ranges  of  the  St.  Elias  mountains  over  a  wider  extent 
than  that  covered  by  my  expedition  report,  without  excep- 
tion, only  the  white  Dall  sheep. 

These  sheep  were  first  classified  and  their  discovery,   as 


192  APPENDIX 

a  distinct  species  of  the  sheep  family,  first  determined  by  Mr. 
E.  W.  Nelson  of  the  United  States  National  Museum  and 
by  Mr.  Nelson,  in  1883,  were  named  Dall's  sheep  in  honor 
of  Mr.  W.  H.  Dall.  Since  then  they  have  been  frequently 
observed  and  studied  by  various  naturalists,  but  it  is  chiefly 
to  the  keen,  patient,  and  persistent  observation  and  studies 
of  Mr.  Charles  Sheldon  over  a  very  considerable  period  that 
we  are  so  greatly  indebted  for  the  enrichment  and  fullness 
of  our  knov^^ledge  concerning  the  different  species  of. north- 
ern sheep. 

In  his  original  description  of  Dall's  sheep  in  Volume  VII, 
pages  12,  13,  1884,  of  "  Proceedings  of  United  States 
National  Museum,"  Mr.  Nelson  states:  "This  form  can 
be  recognized  at  once  by  its  nearly  uniform  dirty  w^hite 
color.  .  .  .  The  dinginess  of  the  w^hite  over  the  entire  body 
and  limbs  appears  to  be  almost  entirely  due  to  the  ends  of 
the  hairs  being  commonly  tipped  v^^ith  a  dull,  rusty  speck. 
On  close  examination  this  tipping  of  the  hairs  makes  the 
fur  look  as  though  it  had  been  slightly  singed."  Mr. 
Charles  Sheldon,  preeminently  an  authority  on  northern 
sheep,  speaks  of  this  "  dinginess  "  as  being  not  a  true  pig- 
mentation, but  due  simply  to  the  sheep's  pellage  being  dis- 
colored in  summer  time  from  contact  w^ith  the  soil  and  dirt 
on  the  mountains.  Mr.  Sheldon  frequently  speaks  of  the 
Dall  as  "  stained  w^hite  sheep,"  and  their  summer  pellage  as 
being  "  badly  stained,"  while  their  winter  pellage  is  pure 
white. 

Without  any  intention  of  even  suggesting  that  the  Dall 
sheep  observed  and  reported  by  Mr.  Nelson  and  Mr.  Shel- 
don had  other  than  dingy  white  summer  pellage,  since  both 
these  scientists  are  accurate  in  their  observations  and  have 


APPENDIX  193 

correctly  reported  what  they  have  seen,  the  writer  believes 
that  neither  of  the  naturalists  mentioned  have  visited  the 
sheep  ranges  covered  by  the  writer,  and  it  may,  therefore, 
be  scientifically  interesting  to  chronicle  the  fact  that,  of  all 
the  sheep  examined  by  the  writer  and  his  party  over  con- 
siderable extent  of  territory,  in  the  months  of  August  and 
September,  not  one  sheep  was  observed  that  had  a  stained 
or  dingy  coat;  in  fact,  all  the  sheep  were  a  pure  white  with 
unstained  immaculate  pellage.  Nor  does  the  writer  mean  to 
suggest  that  the  sheep  seen  by  him  are  a  different  variety  or 
species  from  the  Dall  sheep,  as  he  believes  they  are  a  true 
Dall  type,  but  with  none  of  the  dinginess  observed  by  Mr. 
Nelson  and  Mr.  Sheldon. 

Why  this  should  be  is  purely  speculative,  though  the  rea- 
son may  possibly  be  found  in  the  fact  that  even  in  sum- 
mer the  crests  of  the  mountains  visited  by  the  writer  are  cov- 
ered with  snow  and  hence  the  sheep  which  rest  on  the  heights 
do  not  have  an  opportunity  to  become  stained;  and  yet  this 
snow  presence  is  not  invariably  existent,  as  there  are  many 
of  the  lower  mountains  inhabited  by  sheep  that  were  not 
covered  with  snow,  yet  the  pellage  remained  pure  white. 
So  immaculate  is  the  pellage  of  these  sheep,  even  in  summer, 
that  where  stalking  them  against  the  snow  background,  even 
with  ten-power  binoculars  and  at  close  range,  it  is  very  diffi- 
cult to  pick  them  out,  so  closely  do  they  match  the  white 
background.  Nor  did  any  of  the  sheep  observed  have  spor- 
adic gray  or  dark  hairs  as  reported  by  various  observers  of 
Dall  sheep  in  other  ranges. 

The  horns  of  the  sheep  observed  by  the  writer  and  his 
party  were  invariably  of  the  diverging  type,  by  which  is 
meant  that  in  their  curl,  the  horns  spread  out  from  the  head 


194  APPENDIX 

instead  of  being  closely  curled  beside  the  head,  the  tip  of 
the  horn  marking  the  greatest  point  of  divergence  or  spread. 
A  comparison  of  the  spread  of  the  sheep  killed  by  our  party, 
with  the  spread  of  sheep  killed  by  Mr.  Sheldon  in  the  Ogil- 
vie  Rockies  and  the  Felly  Mountains,  will  show  the  consid- 
erable spread  of  the  sheep  horns  in  the  locality  visited  by  our 
expedition,  thus: 

Hoyt's  ram  killed  August  30th,  1914: 

Number  of  age  rings  on  horn 7   . 

Length  of  outside  of  horn 36      inches 

Spread   from  tip   to   tip 27       inches 

Circumference  at  base 14      inches 

Auer's  ram  —  killed  September  ist,  1914: 

Number  of  age  rings  on  horn g 

Length  of  outside  curve  on  horn 34      inches 

Spread   from   tip   to   tip 23       inches 

Circumference    at    base 14      inches 

Auer's  ram  —  September  2nd,  1914: 

Number  of  age  rings  on  horn ' 8 

Outside  length  of  horn 37      inches 

Spread   from  tip   to  tip 24      inches 

Circumference  of  horn  at  base 15       inches 

Auer's  2nd  ram  on  September  2nd,  1914: 

Number  of  age  rings  on  horn 8 

Outside    length    of    horn 38       inches 

Spread  from  tip   to  tip 25       inches 

Circumference   of   horn    at   base 15^  inches 

Hoyt's  ram  —  killed  September  2nd,  1914: 

Number    of    age   rings , 8 

Outside  length  of  horn 36      inches 

Spread    from    tip    to    tip...-. 27      inches 

Circumference   of   horn   at  base 15       inches 

The  foregoing  observations  hold  as  to  the  heads  brought 
in  by  other  members  of  my  party  and  to  rams  that  we  ob- 


APPENDIX  195 

served,  but  did  not  shoot ;  all  had  the  diverging  type  of  horns 
instead  of  the  closely  curled  type;  although  naturally  there 
vi^as  some  variation  in  spread,  yet  the  type  remained  con- 
stant. 

The  sheep  of  this  region  have  horns  of  amber  color,  w^ith 
the  annular  rings,  showing  age,  well  defined  and  beautifully 
marked;  the  crown  or  outer  rim  of  the  curve  is  a  darker 
amber  approaching  the  brown  and  is  deeply  fluted,  corru- 
gated, and  modeled  at  its  outer  edges. 

A  regular  migration  from  a  fixed  range  or  habitat  is 
practically  unknown  among  these  sheep,  except  that  I  am 
advised,  in  winter,  when  the  snows  on  the  St.  Elias  Range 
become  too  deep,  the  sheep,  in  order  to  get  food,  travel  thirty- 
five  to  forty  miles  to  the  east  where  upon  the  lower  slopes 
of  the  mountains  bordering  Harris  Creek  they  can  dig 
through  the  lesser  depth  of  snow  for  food.  There  is  also 
some  migration  from  regular  ranges  to  a  "  sheep  lick,"  which 
is  a  salt  deposit.  The  writer  observed  a  sheep  lick  on  the 
mountain  side  bordering  Wolverine  River,  where  the  sheep 
were  taking  the  *'  saline  cure  " ;  the  sheep  trail  leading  to  the 
lick  was  plainly  marked  along  the  crest  of  the  mountains  for 
many  miles  and  sheep  were  almost  constantly  observed  com- 
ing to  and  returning  from  the  lick. 

As  before  observed,  excepting  the  mating  season  the 
rams  are  not  found  with  the  ewes  and  lambs,  but  the  rams 
herd  by  themselves  usually  in  bands  of  six  to  twenty,  and 
in  those  bands  all  the  rams  will  be  found  to  be  about  the 
same  age.  Occasionally  a  single  ram  is  found  alone  and 
separated  from  a  band;  in  such  case  it  almost  invariably 
turns  out  he  is  either  an  unsociable  and  crusty  patriarch, 
the  last  of  his  race  and  period,  "  all  his  lovely  companions  " 


196  APPENDIX 

of  similar  age  being  "  faded  and  gone,"  or  he  is  a  sentinel 
ram  doing  scout  duty  on  the  flanks  for  a  bunch  of  other 
rams. 

The  natural  enemies  of  the  sheep  are  the  wolf,  lynx, 
eagle,  and  grizzly  bear;  the  eagle  preys  only  upon  lambs  up 
to  three  months  of  age,  after  which  they  are  safe  from  the 
eagles.  The  wolf  preys  only  upon  sheep  where  he  catches 
them  low  down  on  the  hills  where  the  country  is  smooth, 
or  in  low  sheep  pastures  between  the  mountains,  or  when 
crossing  the  bars  of  a  stream:  separating  two  paralleling 
ranges.  The  writer  watched  a  band  of  six  rams  crossing 
such  a  glacial  bar  on  the  St.  Clair  from  one  range  to  an- 
other and  a  very  cautious  undertaking  it  was.  After  reach- 
ing the  edge  of  the  tundra  three  hundred  feet  above  the 
bottom  gravel  bed,  the  rams  scouted  up  and  down  for  a  mile 
along  the  edge,  looking  down  for  enemies.  After  doing  this 
lookout  duty  for  over  an  hour,  they  made  a  rapid  descent  to 
the  bottom  and  at  full  speed  crossed  the  gravel  bars  and 
started  up  the  mountain  at  the  other  side. 

The  writer  has  assumed  to  state  that  the  grizzly  preys 
upon  sheep;  in  so  stating  he  realizes  that  other  naturalists 
deny  this  fact,  nor  can  the  writer  vouch  for  it  upon  his  own 
experience.  However,  Mr.  Dixon,  one  of  the  writer's 
guides,  who  has  hunted  in  this  range  for  years,  and  Albert 
the  Indian,  who  has  been  accustomed  to  getting  his  winter 
supply  of  meat  from  this  locality,  both  report  the  fact  of 
grizzlies  early  in  October,  when  the  sheep  are  driven  by  the 
deep  snows  to  come  for  feed  low  down  in  the  canyons, 
lying  in  wait  for  the  sheep  and  killing  them  in  the  canyons. 
Bruce  Fisher,  our  cook,  who  for  a  year  was  with  the  Inter- 
national Boundary  Survey,   reports  an  interesting  hunt  in 


APPENDIX  197 

which  two  grizzlies  circled  above  two  sheep  low  down  on 
a  mountain  just  above  a  glacier;  the  bears  drove  the  sheep 
upon  the  glacier,  where  they  fell  in  a  ten-feet  deep  crevasse 
and  where  the  bears  killed  them.  The  writer  deems  these 
reports  as  coming  from  sufficiently  credible  and  reliable 
sources  to  establish  the  fact. 

Since  the  sheep  only  come  down  to  the  lower  slopes  for 
feeding  in  the  morning  or  early  in  the  afternoon  and  at 
all  other  times  are  found  high  up  among  the  pinnacles  and 
snow  crests,  where  they  sleep  and  rest  in  safety,  it  follows 
that  they  are  only  sought  by  wolves  or  other  predatory  ani- 
mals in  the  daytime;  as  soon  as  the  sheep  reaches  the  pre- 
cipitous rock  slopes,  he  can  easily  outrun  a  wolf  or  bear; 
and,  as  he  rests  on  the  crests  of  the  mountains,  his  phe- 
nomenal sense  of  smell  is  ample  to  warn  him  of  the  presence 
of  any  animal. 

CARIBOU 

Yukon  Territory  teems  with  both  the  Barren  Ground 
caribou,  Rangifer  arcticus,  and  the  Woodland  caribou, 
Rangifer  osborni,  the  latter  being  the  larger  and  more  beau- 
tiful, with  very  dark  gray,  almost  black  bodies  and  beautiful 
white  manes  about  the  neck.  The  horns  of  the  osborni 
caribou  are  also  longer  and  broader  of  beam  than  the  barren 
ground  or  arctic  variety ;  it  is  only  the  osborni  type  that  was 
observed  by  the  writer. 

The  osborni  is  not  found  in  large  herds,  the  largest  of 
several  hundred  herds  observed  by  the  writer  containing  only 
sixty-eight  animals ;  unlike  the  Barren  Ground  variety  they 
do  not  range  over  a  wide  extent  of  territory,  but  their  range 
it   probably   limited    to   one   hundred    miles.     Unlike   the 


198  APPENDIX 

moose,  the  female  osborni  caribou  has  horns,  though  they 
are  much  smaller  than  those  in  the  male  of  the  species.  At 
all  times,  except  the  rutting  season,  which  is  early  in  Sep- 
tember, the  older  bulls  are  found  apart  from  the  females, 
but  in  September  the  bulls  fight  for  the  leadership  of  a  herd 
composed  of  a  number  of  cows,  calves,  and  yearling  bulls. 

The  caribou  are  invariably  found  above  timber  line,  upon 
the  high  tundra-covered  mountains,  never  coming  down  be- 
low the  altitude  of  the  low  scrub  willow  bushes  upon  which 
they  feed,  unless  to  cross  some  river  bottom  between  two 
mountain  ranges.  In  summer  the  writer  has  observed  them 
far  into  the  heart  of  the  St.  Elias  range  along  the  glaciers, 
and  has  frequently  seen  them  upon  the  snow  fields  and 
crests  of  the  higher  mountains,  usually  frequented  only  by 
sheep.  When  the  winter  snows  begin  to  deepen  they  move 
out  in  separate  herds  to  the  lower  tundra  mountains,  where 
they  can  paw  through  the  snow  for  the  underlying  white 
moss,  which  is  their  only  winter  diet. 

These  animals  are  exceedingly  timid,  but  their  timidity 
seems  to  be  actuated  through  their  sense  of  smell  rather  than 
through  sight  or  hearing;  mere  noise  and  rifle  shots  disturb 
them  but  little,  as  the  writer,  unseen  by  them,  fired  his 
rifle  frequently  at  range  of  one  hundred  yards,  without  even 
disturbing  the  feeding  animals,  but  rifle  shot  combined  with 
sight  of  hunter  usually  causes  a  mild  stampede  in  the  oppo- 
site direction.  On  the  other  hand,  mere  sight  of  the  hun- 
ter instead  of  arousing  fear  seems  at  times  to  beget  a 
friendly  curiosity.  It  has  often  happened  that  these  animals 
have  observed  the  writer  traveling  sometimes  on  foot,  some- 
times on  horse,  and  the  caribou  have  approached  quite  close, 
circling  about  and  trying  to  get  to  the  windward.     Bu]t 


APPENDIX  199 

once  the  caribou  has  gotten  the  wind  of  the  hunter,  no  mat- 
ter what  his  previous  curiosity  and  friendliness,  he  imme- 
diately stampedes  in  a  rapid,  distance-consuming  race  for 
new  fields.  The  calves  and  isolated  cows  and  young  bulls 
are  preyed  upon  somewhat  by  wolves,  but  the  herded  caribou 
are  exempt  from  attack.  Even  the  lordly  moose  will  usually 
avoid  battle  with  a  bull  caribou,  which  offsets  its  lesser  bulk 
with  sharper  horns,  and  where  bull  caribou  and  bull  moose 
fight,  as  occasionlly  happens,  the  moose  is  very  glad  to  re- 
tire second  best.  The  fur  of  the  caribou  is  much  used  by  the 
natives  for  sleeping  robes,  moccasins,  and  clothing,  while  the 
flesh  is  only  a  shade  less  edible  than  mountain  sheep,  the 
most  delicious  of  all  meats. 

MOOSE 

The  Yukon  moose  Is  darker  in  color  and  bulks  larger  in 
weight  as  well  as  in  size  of  horns  than  the  moose  of  East- 
cm  Canada;  his  habits  are  similar  in  most  respects  to  his 
brethren  of  Ontario,  Quebec,  and  New  Brunswick.  Like 
them  he  feeds  principally  on  willows,  though  he  also  eats 
some  grass  when  he  can  find  it.  In  the  summer  he  de- 
lights to  frequent  the  low  valleys,  where  he  feeds  on  roots 
and  aquatic  plants  found  in  the  rivers  and  lakes.  In  Oc- 
tober they  leave  the  low  country  and  go  far  up  the  draws 
leading  into  the  mountains ;  in  hunting  the  caribou  far  above 
timber  line  upon  the  high  tundra  mountains,  I  have  come 
across  many  moose  antlers  upon  the  tundra,  and  since  the 
moose  shed  their  horns  from  the  middle  of  December  to  the 
middle  of  January,  the  presence  of  these  horns  Indicates  that 
at  this  season  of  the  year  they  frequent  the  tundra  moun- 
tains, where,   I  am  Informed,  they  dig  through  the  snow 


200  APPENDIX 

like  the  caribou  for  the  moss  that  ever  grows  upon  the 
tundra. 

Their  rut  begins  in  September,  when  their  horns  are  out 
of  the  velvet  covering,  and  ends  about  October  first.  Dur- 
ing the  rutting  season  the  bulls  are  very  wary  and  cautious 
and  their  scent  phenomenal,  but  they  are  also  extremely 
curious  and  are  easily  hunted,  coming  to  the  call  of  a  birch- 
bark  horn,  or  the  scraping  of  a  bone  on  a  tree  after  the 
manner  of  a  rival  moose  scraping  his  horns.  They  are  less 
easily  hunted  by  stalking,  as  during  rutting  season  their 
sense  of  hearing  and  smell  is  unusually  keen  and  one  who 
attempts  to  stalk  a  moose  matches  wits  with  an  animal 
that  is  apt  to  demonstrate  his  instincts  as  superior  to  hun- 
ter's craft. 

Except  during  rutting  season  moose  renounce  the  society 
of  cows  and  live  in  solitude,  except  that  a  few  bulls  are 
frequently  found  feeding  together,  after  which  their  ways 
usually  diverge.  In  the  country  visited  by  the  writer,  moose 
are  prolific  on  the  wooded  benches  on  both  sides  of  the  St. 
Clair  River,  in  the  Harris  River  Valley,  the  Wolverine  Val- 
ley, and  along  the  timbered  slopes  of  the  mountains  along 
the  Donjeck  River. 

BEARS 

The  grizzly  bear,  ursus  horribilis,  is  found  scattered  over 
the  entire  Yukon  Territory,  having  its  habitat  far  above 
timber  line  among  the  mountains  and,  in  the  region  visited 
by  the  writer,  particularly  the  mountains  at  the  head  of  the 
Slims,  the  Donjeck,  St.  Clair,  the  Count,  and  the  Wolverine, 
the  grizzly  is  fairly  prolific  as  bears  go,  though  they  are 
never  found  anywhere  in  great  numbers;  numerous  tracks, 


APPENDIX  20I 

diggings,  and  other  evidence  bespeak  their  presence,  but,  as 
an  Indian  once  said  to  me,  "  A  bear  is  very  hard  to  see." 
The  silver-tipped  variety  is  very  prevalent  in  the  country 
we  covered,  and  all  the  grizzlies  killed  on  this  expedition 
were  of  the  beautiful,  silver-tipped  type. 

These  bears,  wherever  found,  in  spite  of  the  stories  told 
from  time  to  time,  are  generally  very  wary  and  timid  and 
flee  in  craven  fear  at  the  sight  of  man ;  the  exceptions  to  the 
rule  are  found  when  the  bear  is  with  cubs,  or  is  cornered 
and  wounded,  and  in  either  of  which  situations  it  is  a  dan- 
gerous quarry,  as  it  then  loses  all  fear  and  becomes  obsessed 
with  a  towering  rage;  its  vitality  is  tremendous  and  it  will 
carry  an  immense  amount  of  lead  and  still  push  the  fighting ; 
and  in  addition  it  strikes  a  blow  with  its  paw  more  powerful 
than  that  of  a  lion. 

By  reason  of  its  wariness  and  timidity  it  is  almost  hope- 
less to  stalk  a  bear,  merely  by  tracking  it,  unless  you  know 
where  it  is  at  the  time,  for  a  bear  is  a  distance  traveler  and 
you  may  follow  a  trail  for  days  without  seeing  the  quarry. 
The  method  most  apt  to  be  productive  of  results  is  to  bait 
the  animal  by  leaving  a  dead  sheep  or  caribou  carcass  near 
a  locality  where  bear  signs  have  been  recently  observed. 
The  carcass  should  be  some  distance  from  your  camp,  at 
least  three  or  more  miles  away,  and  should  be  visited  every 
second  day;  once  the  bait  is  found  by  the  bear,  the  animal 
will  seldom  leave  the  food  supply,  but  will  spend  days  alter- 
nately eating  and  sleeping  until  the  carcass  is  entirely  con- 
sumed. All  other  methods  of  bear  hunting  seem  to  the 
writer  to  be  haphazard  and  most  likely  to  fail..,^ 

The  grizzly  eats  ground  squirrels  which,  with  much  labor, 
he  digs  out  of  their  burrows  in  the  slopes  in  the  mountains, 


202  APPENDIX 

tearing  up  the  soil  with  his  long  claws;  mice  found  along 
the  banks  of  the  rivers,  salmon,  which  he  catches  in  the 
streams,  and  carcasses  of  animals  complete  his  meat  diet. 
In  season  he  also  eats  willow  leaves,  berries,  and  pea-vine 
root,  which  tastes  like  parsnips  but  is  too  woody  and  fibrous 
for  a  man  to  eat.  The  bear  hibernates  in  October  in  this 
region  and  comes  out  from  winter  quarters  the  last  of  May 
or  early  in  June,  according  to  the  melting  of  the  snows. 
The  cubs  are  bom  sometime  during  the  hibernation  period, 
though  just  when  is  not  known,  as  there  has  been  little 
or  no  reliable  observation  on  this  phase  of  bear  life.  The 
female  has  one  to  three  cubs  that  remain  with  the  mother 
for  about  two  years. 

Among  the  interesting  "  bear  stories  "  of  this  region  is  the 
reported  presence  of  "  blue  bears,"  also  known  as  the  "  gla- 
cier bear,"  and  said  to  be  found  along  the  glaciers  at  the 
head  of  the  Donjeck,  the  St.  Clair,  and  the  Generc,  and 
also  along  Russell  Glacier.  Dixon  the  guide,  Albert  the 
Indian,  and  Fisher  the  cook  are  positive  in  their  statements 
of  having  seen  these  "  blue  bears "  several  times  on  the 
glaciers,  and  describe  them  as  being  a  "  real  grayish  blue,  so 
that  against  the  blue  glacial  ice  you  can  hardly  see  them, 
as  they  don't  stand  out  at  all."  They  are  reported  to  be 
as  large  as  a  medium-size  grizzly  and  are  always  seen  on 
the  glacier  or  close  to  its  edge.  The  Duke  of  Abruzzi,  in 
making  the  traverse  of  the  glacier  on  the  expedition,  when 
he  climbed  Mt.  St.  Elias,  killed  several  blue  bears  of  this 
description  and  it  may  be  that  this  is  the  same  bear,  a  va- 
riety of  the  grizzly  species,  with  a  different  color  phase  due 
to  the  glacial  environment.  The  writer  regrets  he  was  un- 
able to  give  a  week's  time  to  baiting  one  of  the  glaciers  in 


APPENDIX  203 

hope  of  discovering  one  of  these  bears  and  of  completely 
verifying  the  reports  of  them.  Two  of  the  members  of 
my  party,  in  exploring  a  part  of  the  country  adjacent  to 
the  Generc  Glacier,  discovered  a  fox  pen  and  remains  of  a 
camp,  where,  in  the  spring  of  the  year,  two  natives  had 
made  their  headquarters  while  they  engaged  in  the  enter- 
prise of  capturing  live  cross  and  silver  fox  pups.  These 
two  members  of  my  party  also  found  about  the  deserted 
camp  two  ruined  and  worthless  bear  skins  much  eaten  by 
rabbits  and  rotted  by  weather,  but  the  color  of  such  fur  as 
remained  was  a  slate  blue.  In  view  of  the  reports  of  the 
blue  bears  and  the  ruined,  slate-blue  skins  found  by  mem- 
bers of  my  own  expedition,  I  trust  the  next  expedition  to 
this  region  may  take  the  time  and  effort  necessary  to  a 
complete  investigation  of  the  matter,  as  it  would  be  par- 
ticularly desirable  to  examine,  study,  and  classify  these  re- 
ported bears. 

MOUNTAIN  GOATS 

The  only  place  in  the  territory  covered  where  we  found 
mountain  goats  was  at  the  head  of  the  Slims  River,  in  the 
mountains  bordering  the  Glacier.  Their  location  at  this 
point  is  rather  remarkable  to  the  writer,  as  it  is  about  one 
hundred  miles  from  the  Pacific  coast  as  the  crow  flies,  and 
goats,  with  this  exception  only,  as  far  as  the  writer  is  able 
to  ascertain,  are  found  exclusively  in  the  humid  belt  of  the 
mountains  along  the  Pacific  coast  and  never  across  the  St. 
Elias  Range  on  the  easterly  slopes;  yet  there  they  were  at 
the  head  of  the  Slims  River  in  large  numbers.  The  writer 
also  talked  with  a  band  of  Indians  who  had  a  number  of  goat 
skins  which  they  claimed  to  have  taken  along  the  mountains 


204  APPENDIX 

beside  the  Kaskawulsh  River  near  its  inflow  into  the  De- 
zadeash  and  Alsek  rivers;  this  would  mark  the  goat  ranges 
far  east  of  their  supposed  habitat. 

At  the  headwaters  of  the  Slims  it  was  interesting  to  note 
the  close  proximity  of  goat  and  sheep  ranges.  Kennedy 
Creek  Canyon,  one  hundred  yards  wide,  was  the  narrow 
boundary  line  between  sheep  and  goats;  the  mountains  ris- 
ing abruptly  from  one  side  of  the  canyon  held  sheep,  those 
on  the  other  side  held  goats,  yet  they  do  not  range  to- 
gether. Ordinarily  they  are  found  low  down  on  the  in- 
ferior crests  of  minor  escarpments  and  often  in  the  very  bot- 
toms of  the  canyons,  where  they  come  to  feed  on  willows; 
but  at  the  time  of  our  visitation  they  were  high  upon  the 
serrated  pinnacles.  They  are  rather  stupid  animals,  not 
nearly  as  wary  and  hence  not  so  difficult  to  hunt  as  sheep. 

OTHER  MAMMALS 

The  wolf  is  prevalent  in  the  region  visited,  though  like 
the  bear  he  "  is  hard  to  see,"  but  his  tracks  are  numerous 
on  the  sandbars,  indicating  his  presence.  These  wolves  are 
quite  large,  are  black,  white,  gray  and  mixed  black  and 
white  color.  They  feed  upon  rabbits,  mice,  and  caribou  and 
moose  calves,  with  an  occasional  sheep;  their  habits  are 
those  of  the  timber  wolves  of  other  localities.  Red  foxes, 
silver  foxes  with  cross,  and  black  foxes  are  found  in  unusual 
numbers  in  this  region,  and  with  mink,  otter,  lynx,  and 
ermine  complete  the  quota  of  fur-bearing  animals.  Ground 
squirrels,  called  by  the  guides  "  gophers,"  but  being  quite 
different  from  the  true  gopher,  are  very  abundant  and  fur- 
nish food  for  both  the  Indian  native  and  for  the  grizzly 
bears. 


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